Cash for Cake
by MsDiana
Summary: Luke was used to undercover ops before the BAU, Fugitive Task Force needs him to do it again. This time some of his new team will help him, except Garcia hates the idea at first. Until she sees the benefit in it for herself and just how talented Luke is at undercover work. This story is shameless and was an idea I had when Luke joined the team last year but I just HAD to do it.
1. Chapter 1

1\. I write Derek in, even under a flimsy excuse, because I loves me some Derek.

2\. This story is shameless and self-indulgent. Enjoy.

Luke's old unit chief was in Emily's office, Penelope had noticed and was immediately intrigued. When he had transferred over she had snooped on all his old personnel files. Some were sealed and even though she _could_ break into them she didn't want to get in trouble over it, but she'd still snooped as much as she could without breaking the rules. So when she recognized his old boss from her investigation, she was intrigued. JJ and Reid saw her trying to act casual as she peeked around the corner.

"What's going on, Garcia?" Spencer asked.

She was startled, glancing at them momentarily before returning to her surveillance, "I'm not sure exactly but that's Luke's old boss, maybe he's in trouble or something." She gave a conspiratorial look to the others who were both grinning wildly at her thought process.

"I doubt it, he's been with the team for awhile, I don't think they'd just be reprimanding him now." JJ smiled at her back.

"The fugitive task force might need our help on a case. That would be interesting." Reid interjected.

"Unless there was another jailbreak, I don't see why they would." Penelope answered back. JJ shrugged her shoulders at Garcia's back as she continued her focused observation.

Luke and Simmons walked up silently, standing next to JJ and Reid who were still observing Garcia as she was trying to be covert. "What if Luke did something bad, like really bad and now they are discussing how they have to punish him?"

Luke took a few steps towards her, standing just inches from her back and leaned in close to her ear, "Are you saying something about me being a bad boy?"

Penelope stood up straight and huffed, before whirling around to face him, "Would you tell us if you were?" She tried to maintain an indignant glare even though she'd been caught.

The other three agents were laughing, watching the exchange between the two of them.

Rossi walked out of his office and towards the gleeful group, "We're going to be needed in the briefing room soon." He informed them.

Garcia headed towards her office to get her tablet that she assumed she'd need. Luke followed her out of the glass doors. He ran into Tara, she was hurried and had case files in her arms as she was coming in, "Hey, briefing room in a few." She smiled at him as he held the door for her. Penelope was getting further away, so he took a quick jaunt towards her retreating form.

She knew he was behind her, probably to tease and taunt her about snooping. Well, it's not like she was snooping about him she was just snooping and it happened to be about him, probably.

She turned to shut the outer door but he got there first and put his hand on it to stop her movement. She huffed again, rolling her eyes accepting that he was coming in. She turned to the original task, retrieving her tablet and a pen. "So you think I'm still some troublemaker? After all we've been through?"

"I didn't say anything. I was just making a possible observation." She maintained her dignified yet annoyed tone.

"Sure thing Hotshot, that sounds about right."

"Can I help you with something?"

"No, just wanted to see why you were so concerned about me." He paused to leer, "Unless there is something you need help with." He raised his eyebrow at her.

"No flirting. I don't like that."

"Since when?"

"Ugh!" She said exasperated before lightly hitting him in the chest with her tablet as she walked past him through the door, knowing her annoying shadow would be along in moments.

…

Garcia walked into the conference room, taking the chair between JJ and Tara so Luke couldn't sit next to her if he tried. He smirked at her anyway and took a seat directly across from her so he could keep annoying her.

"What are we here for?" she asked.

"If you don't know, we don't know." Dave said as he poured his coffee.

Just then Derek walked in "Hey, what's this I hear, you need my help?"

Penelope stood up with a look of elation on her face, "Derek Chocolate Thunder Morgan, what are you doing here?" They both hugged each other with force. He held onto her, before kissing her forehead, "I don't leave my Sweet Thing for too long."

The others all stood up to give handshakes or hugs. Luke was the last one, he reached over the table with a smile on his face, "Nice to see you again, Morgan." Everyone got seated again except Penelope who was still standing near Derek.

"Seriously, what are you doing here my love?" Penelope asked.

"Prentiss called me just a couple hours ago, asked me if I was bored and if I wouldn't mind coming in for a case. Said it was minimal risk, Savannah and I agreed that I'd hear it out. I know nothing more, Sweetness."

"I wonder what it could be." Reid stated curiously.

"Don't know, Pretty Boy. But if it means I get to be with my Angel Face, I'm a happy man." He had one arm around Penelope's shoulder now as they faced the round table.

"Love you too!" She scrunched her face at him.

Everyone was watching them, enjoying the familiarity, including Simmons who got used to it when his team consulted on that family killer three years ago. Luke was the only one who hadn't _really_ seen it for himself. He'd heard about the infamous relationship but he'd only briefly met Morgan. He tried to maintain an emotionless facade but he couldn't help but wonder why the hell he didn't even get an ounce of her sweetness when it was now oozing out of her. He could feel the confusion marring his face, catching himself, he looked around the table at the others, hoping they didn't see. He straightened himself out and brought his face back to impassive.

Emily walked in, followed by a tall broad shouldered man, while he was very physically fit, he looked closer to Rossi's age than any of theirs. "This is Ted Sero." Emily said as she gave Morgan a hug before walking to stand in front of the screen.

Luke stood up and gave the man a handshake, grabbing his arm, "Good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Alvez. We miss you." After his brief pit stop he followed Emily.

"So we'll cut right to it. Sero is here because he wanted to take Luke off of our hands." Prentiss informed.

"I can pack his stuff up in less than ninety seconds." Penelope chimed in. She had taken her original seat, she glanced around not knowing if it was an appropriate time to joke but Emily's grin made her release the breath she'd held. The others smirking at her while Luke shook his head. Derek grabbed another chair and brought it directly behind Penelope's.

"Actually, I said we wanted to keep him but they do need his help temporarily. When Sero explained the case, I thought we could lend our expertise." She made a hand motion that Sero could further explain.

"Normally, our operations take time. We have to go undercover, learn everything we can, build trust. Unfortunately, we don't have time to start from scratch. We tried to bring down a drug operation in Miami, years back. Originally we were assigned to it because there was a fugitive working for the operation, he later fled the country but since we already were in deep, we tried to bring down the big boss. However, he ended up in jail for something unrelated, the drugs were still filtering through but on a smaller scale. Obviously his goons were doing the best they could without taking risks. I know it doesn't sound like your serial killers, but this guy's killed at least twenty people over the last five years we were just never able to pin it on him."

"We'd love to help but how can we make ourselves of use?" Rossi questioned, his hand around his coffee cup.

"That's the problem, we thought a lot of the kills were just dealers that stopped selling, or owed money, but we've come to recognize a pattern, he kills during Spring Break in March and the second week of February as well as around Christmas."

"So you think instead of being a hazard of the job when you work with criminals, it's actually a serial killer using his business as a way to satisfy the need to kill?" Tara contemplated.

"Quite possibly and the reason why our help could be useful is because there was a kill last month and with Spring Break happening all this month..." Prentiss trailed off.

Luke's face was closed off but his eyes were telling, he wanted confirmation, "This is about Stone Mountain?"

Sero turned to him, although he was a serious man, there was a little gleam in his eye as he nodded.

Luke sat back in his chair, blowing out a breath, then briefly closing his eyes before he looked back to the his former boss. "I'm back in?"

"Don't see another way."

Luke crossed his arms over his chest in acceptance of the task.

Penelope was observing him just like the rest of them but she was concerned. She hadn't seen him this closed off in a long time. She also didn't want to see him in danger, and she figured going undercover would be. She straightened her shoulders, trying to maintain a modicum of sensibility as she attempted to calm her now jumping nerves.

"Unfortunately, we are going to need to work very hard on this one. We might not have to go undercover the same way Luke will but we can't have contact with our families. It is possible we can jeopardize the case if we seemed out of place. Morgan, that's why I thought you might be of use, we need to blend in, none of us are rowdy college students but there's a lot of good-looking, professional singles that go there around these times as well. We need to look like, well quite frankly we all need to look like we're going to have a good time sitting in a jacuzzi." Prentiss tipped her head.

"So we'd be acting like we were on vacation?" Derek questioned.

"Essentially, we would be checking out the clubs, seeing if we can figure out who runs what, but we are not intentionally supposed to engage. Only Alvez will be doing that." She answered.

"I don't mean to insult myself here, but I don't think I blend." Rossi raised an eyebrow.

"That's why I asked Morgan, Tara, this will likely last two weeks and you have the trial you have to be here for next Monday. Rossi, I figured that you weren't planning on hitting the clubs up with us." She smiled at him as he politely shook his head. "And that means we'll be short handed."

"Not sure I would blend either. I don't think anyone would believe I went on vacation to Miami on purpose." Spencer spoke up with a crooked smile.

"It's up to all of you, that goes for everyone." She nodded at everyone around the room. "No contact with your families for two weeks is a lot to ask and isn't in your normal job description."

"If you don't mind, I think I will take the time to work with my mother and her doctor, we're trying memory recovery techniques and I don't think I should take that much time in between." Spencer gave a tight smile as he thought about his mom.

"I understand."

Emily regarded Simmons, who answered confidently, "I'm on board."

"Me too," JJ smiled.

"I'll clear it with Savannah but it shouldn't be a problem." Derek spoke.

Emily took a seat and let Sero stand in front of the screen so he could brief the team on the case. He was about to speak, but he glanced at Luke who had his arms crossed, and was otherwise completely emotionless. "Actually Alvez, would you mind? You were the one that went through all of this." He held the remote out to him. Luke gave a curt nod obeying the orders even if they were really just a request.

This was it, these people he had come to know, these people he was letting himself open up to and care about, were going to find out just how deep undercover he had to go sometimes. They were going to see a completely different side of him, maybe all sides of him, and he was going to have to trust them with it.

….

The next chapter will explain, _oh so much_. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

This story is shameless. Thank you.

* * *

Luke stood up in front of the screen, eyes downcast, staring at the tablet on the table in front of him, showing the powerpoint. "These men were all shot dead and it looked like they'd been in a fight, there were a lot of defensive wounds. On the surface it seems like a typical, drug-gang-you owe money, kill. All the victims worked in various clubs, mostly in and around the Miami area. These clubs are all owned by Luis Ruiz. He was big time, drugs from Cuba, no one talked, no one could catch him in the act. But still, everyone knew what was happening, some local police might be on the payroll, with the way drugs were so abundant we think it was more than likely."

"Was?" JJ asked curiously.

"We finally got the guy on domestic violence of all things. Since he punched his wife in the face and a random clubgoer caught it on their phone, he got locked away for awhile. He's never been charged with anything else. However, the drugs slowed down right after he was put away so it was all but confirmed. The last victim, I knew him from my time undercover, nice guy, good father and husband. When I read the autopsy report though, I noticed that the M.E. had reported a tattoo that I know for a fact he didn't have. That's when we went back over the other cases, the other men all had the same tattoo. We never knew because most of the victims had multiple tattoos and we were never looking for a signature like that. In Miami there are multiple medical examiners because of the high crime rate. Not every victim was examined by the same one. It was just an oversight, but by then Ruiz was locked up and the brass didn't want to waste resources."

"I wanted to send someone in again but it wasn't a priority, with Ruiz in jail we wouldn't get him. We'd maybe take out some underlings, if we pin the murders on them then Ruiz has a scapegoat, didn't want to do that either." Sero's face was marred with frustration.

"What's the significance of the tattoos?" Rossi asked.

"Not sure on symbolism," Luke clicked the remote again, one of the victim's appeared a close up of their lower back displayed, the tattoo there, magnified, "but I know it's this guy's signature."

"A gang, cartel, they wouldn't bother with such flare. They might have a signature but it's usually something like, we always shoot you in the leg before we kill you with a baseball bat, it's not a... flower?" Simmons squinted at the screen.

"Exactly. That was the thought process, either Ruiz is very poetic about drugs or possibly carries out these kills in order to cover up his real desire for murder," Prentiss said.

"At first, the murders didn't seem to fit a pattern, even after we noticed the same time frame for the murders, it seemed like a countermeasure more than anything. More people, more suspects, police are too busy with security at beach parties to give full force to investigations." Sero informed.

Before Luke clicked the next slide he examined the group. He made brief eye contact with Penelope before he glanced down to the tablet, he stared at the next pictures in the lineup, "I'll have to go back in, I already established a persona and I left under the pretense that I was going to move back to Puerto Rico to take care of my sick mother. There was no reason to suspect anything, people come and go through those clubs a lot. With Ruiz gone, there was so much chaos anyway. They threw a farewell party for me when I left."

"What was your cover?" Reid curiously questioned.

Luke let out a breath, closing his eyes briefly, "Stone Mountain was the name of the club I was working in, it's an," he winced before finishing his sentence hoping that there would be no hazing, "all male revue." He clicked the button and a few pictures, thankfully tame, showed up. One of him with a group of guys in matching outfits. A few of him on the stage pointing into the crowd, quite a few of him with women's hands on his abs, all of them with oil on his chest. He bravely glanced around to gauge their expressions. They had faces full of shock which quickly transformed into either gleaming eyes or the sides of their mouths turning up. Penelope's face was the only one that appeared completely unamused and almost angry.

He nodded at them, it was the best he could ask for. "About half of the victims were also male dancers. Ruiz owns another male revue on the other side of town and the rest are regular clubs and bars. I was never asked to carry drugs, money, or anything else. The guy who died, I would've bet my life he wouldn't have, so if they chose to kill him because he was in debt to them, I never saw it."

"I don't get it, if Ruiz is away then why now?" Simmons asked after taming his smirk.

"He was let out about six months ago, overcrowding, and as far as the justice system is concerned, he's only guilty of one count of domestic violence." Sero informed.

"We're not supposed to be more than a blip on the radar, but we don't want to rouse suspicion which is why we can't contact anyone here. It's too risky. If we need to make contact with Luke, we have to make sure we don't look like we're filtering information back to anyone else. Is everyone on board with this?" Prentiss asked again after they had all the information now, the three people that were actually going into the field nodded.

"How am I going to help you if I'm all the way over here and you can't call me?" Penelope queried.

"You're coming along. It's going to be the same rules for you even though we are planning to set you up in a hotel room with all your equipment. We still don't want to risk there being any suspicion." Prentiss informed, tipping her head, asking her if she still wanted to be a part of this.

Penelope nodded her agreement.

"Okay we'll be wheels up in ninety minutes. I want to give you a little time to say goodbye if you need to." Prentiss explained their delayed departure. "Sero will fly with us but he will stay across town with a few of his agents that we won't make contact with at all, unless there is an emergency."

Sero picked up the large manilla envelope he had set on the table when he walked in and pulled out a fake I.D., a cell phone, and a plane ticket. "You're flying to Puerto Rico as yourself, and then back to Miami as Jay Rivera. I assume you can get the job back." Sero grinned at Luke.

"I can call right now, it's not a problem. I'll say my mother died and I'd rather be back in Miami. They won't question it." Luke assured.

"You remember your routines still?" It was a good natured jab by Sero, they'd obviously needed humor the last time around.

Luke silently chuckled, shaking his head. "Let's hope so." Everyone in the room tried to keep their smiles contained with the exception of Penelope who still seemed angry.

"Well that's set then. The sooner the better, we need you back in place immediately." Sero nodded at him.

"We'll be set up in sister hotels, they face each other and share a courtyard and pool." Emily informed Luke.

"Make sure it's the basic room, on a bottom floor, facing your hotel. If I'm coming back to strip it's not because I can afford nice accomodations. Also, there will be a party in my room at some point, there always is. It's better if you can see me and if I'm on the bottom floor," he nodded. "See you all on the other side." Luke clicked the remote to shut the screen off then made his way to the exit. He caught Penelope's gaze as he passed her before he departed.

The same tense expression was on her face but she blinked at him when they made eye contact. It was brief and luckily everyone was paying attention to Sero at the front of the room."I'll go with him to the airport it'll be good to review the facts. I'll be back in time for the jet." Sero followed Luke's exit.

The others turned to Emily, "Reid and Rossi, if you want to use vacation days you are welcome to do so but I'm sure Tara could use your help, she's got a huge case load right now," she nodded at the three team members that were staying behind. "I know we're all worried about Luke but he's done this before, we need to trust that he can do it again. We need to focus on how we can help, we might be able to pick something up as a tourist that he can't see when he's on stage."

A few people tried to suppress their smiles, Emily put her head down doing the same, "And also for his sake can we please try to be as professional as possible? This can't be easy on him." She made serious eye contact with everyone in the room. "Until the case is over, then maybe a little hazing." She smirked.

They dispersed, Penelope returned to her lair to get ready. Derek was speaking to Dave when he saw her wander off looking lost. He excused himself from talking to Rossi to follow Penelope. He came into her office, shutting the door and watching her work on her computer. "Baby Girl-"

"Don't." She kept working and didn't even turn around.

"Baby Girl, talk to me."

"You already know. Stupid profilers."

"Enlighten me anyway."

"Luke's a stupid macho stripper man who has girls throwing money at him so they can see him naked."

Derek bit his bottom lip trying to keep from laughing. "No Penelope, Luke Alvez is an FBI agent who is going undercover to help catch a bad guy."

"Whatever, I always knew he was one of those anyway."

"One of those what?"

"Ya know the douchey macho men."

"And if you didn't know me what would you think I was, just by looking at me or seeing me dance in a club?"

"Not fair, Derek."

"I agree, you're not being fair."

She finally whirled towards him, "I - I am I'm fair Derek, I - he's-just leave it alone."

"I'll leave it alone Penelope, for now. But can you just do me one favor? Can you maybe just stop holding it against him?"

"Holding what against him?"

"That he made you like him."

Penelope straightened herself out, "Don't you need to go call Savannah?"

Derek nodded at her and exited, leaving her to prepare for the trip to Miami.

…

On the plane everyone was briefed about Luke's time in Miami before. They learned of the persona he created, how he was supposed to act, his backstory and anything else to do with not only the drug case but the murders. After they learned all the information, "Wow, Alvez has been through it huh?" Derek asked.

"Actually this is one of the easiest cases he was ever on. And nothing he's ever done in the FBI compares to the things he had to do when he was in the Rangers." Sero casually flipped through a file. He felt the silence and turned his gaze up to the concerned and curious faces around him. "Alvez is strong, don't worry about him. He got through all of that, it's in the past."

"Look, why don't we clear our minds, we've got to be on twenty four seven once we land." Emily instructed.

Everyone moved to read files or chat. Penelope was sitting further away from the group, in the last row of seats, typing away.

JJ approached her. "Prentiss just said that we were supposed to take it easy." JJ said sweetly.

"I want to get all this info organized, I'm putting all of his notes into my files."

"It's just a case, like any other, don't let it get to you." JJ leaned over the seat in front of Penelope.

"I'm not. I'm just trying to be prepared."

JJ slowly pushed the top of Penelope's laptop down, "Please don't do this."

Penelope took a deep breath, blinking a few times as she answered, "He'll be in danger, and I know, he's always in danger just like everyone always is. But I just have this terrible feeling in my stomach. And also, why does he have to be a stripper? Can't he just tend bar? Tending bar, he'd get tips for his drink making skills not his panty melting skills."

"Panty melting? Wow that's serious." JJ grinned at her words.

"Aggg!" was Penelope's only response.

JJ gave her a smile out of the side of her mouth before leaving her alone. There was no way she was going to be getting through to her today.

Penelope flipped her laptop back open after JJ walked away. She wasn't actually doing anything with the notes, she had hacked into the internal reports from the case. Sero told them that Luke was different undercover, much different. The worry didn't dissipate as she read through the various details of what he had to do. She was attempting to convince herself that if he was so capable of acting this way it meant a part of him really was that way. It was easy to push him away at first but she knew him better now. Lately she had reverted back to her old jabs and icy demeanor, because lately she had realized her crush was not only still alive, but growing.

Penelope had told herself that it would wear off but here she was, hacking into reports she shouldn't be, simply because her interest was nowhere near wearing off. Maybe this would finally make him untouchable. Maybe she'd finally convince her brain to stop spending her time thinking about him. She closed the laptop and sighed, she decided to take Em's advice, and rest.

As she sunk down in her seat she put her hand up to her chest, maybe her head would catch on but she wasn't sure her heart ever would.


	3. Chapter 3

The five team members arrived at the hotel and checked in under their aliases that were set up by Sero. They purposely wore casual clothing so no one would be suspicious. All their weapons were hidden under their clothing instead of clipped on their hips.

Derek and Matt shared a room on the second floor. Their door was facing the middle courtyard area where the two hotels would host dance raves and cookouts.

JJ and Emily had the suite on the corner so they could keep watch over the shared courtyard but also of the crowded Miami sidewalk. The oceanfront hotel was not fancy but not a dump. It was an average Spring Break hotel that was meant for sleeping and partying.

Penelope had the room in between her four team set up a small but pretty sophisticated work station. She could leave the hotel room and act like she was on vacation, it would be more obvious if she didn't, but she wasn't going to the clubs every night so her companions were going to be her laptops.

She heard a knock coming from the adjoining door. "What on earth?"

"Penelope, let me in." Derek singsonged.

"Oh boy," she smiled as she opened the door on her side, "You better not use this incredibly convenient door to take advantage of me in the middle of the night." She raised her eyebrows at him.

He laughed, "Oh Sweetness, why do you think I'm scoping it out now? So I can know exactly what I'm doing later."

"I think you always know what you're doing, Angel Face."

Simmons strolled in behind Derek, following him silently and laughing as he enjoyed the banter between the two. Penelope sat down in front of her computer, "Look at you two handsome fools, please tell me you're not both going to start wearing fedoras."

"We're on vacation in Miami. Fedoras are all but required." Simmons joked to her.

"You don't like our linen button ups?" Derek opened his arms wide showing off his outfit.

"Oh no, I love it. It's see through. What more could a girl want?" She patted his abs through the flimsy shirt.

There was a knock at the hotel room door, Derek walked over to open it. The other two members of the team were there, "You two started your secret affair already?" Emily entered the room followed by JJ.

"Oh Honey that's been happening for years." Penelope remarked without looking up from the keyboard she was now utilizing.

Emily smiled, "So tonight, JJ and I are going to be having a girls night at the club, to celebrate my engagement."

Simmons was leaning on the wall, "And what are we up to?"

"I want you two to go to the bar next door to the club. Apparently, Ruiz doesn't enjoy the atmosphere of Stone Mountain as much as the money he makes from it, so he goes next door to talk business." Emily answered.

Matt nodded, while Derek questioned, "What about the surveillance in Alvez's room? He said they always throw parties, wouldn't him returning, be an occasion for one?"

"You're right, but Penelope can handle that. I just got word that he made contact with one of the managers from the club and he got a huge hug and a ride from the airport from him. He went straight to the club so none of them even know where he's staying yet, no risk at all." Prentiss looked to her.

Penelope nodded, saying nothing. She knew they would never put her in danger. None of them even thought Luke was in danger, not really. He was never going to start dealing drugs so they'd never target him, she assured herself. She'd gone off somewhere in her head, apparently daydreaming, when she noticed that the other four occupants of the room were dispersing.

"You alright, Garcia?" JJ smiled at her.

"Yeah yeah, just, we're doing something a little different and I can go to the pool while technically working, this is going to take some adjustment." She shook her head.

"Think of it this way, we're going to get paid to wear caftans," JJ pointed to her swim cover up and flip flops, "and sip fruity drinks. Granted, they can't have alcohol in them but we've had much worse assignments. We've got two weeks of tropical sun with a little work thrown in." She smiled at her.

"You are right my lovely." Penelope smiled back, letting her know she was all charmed up.

JJ said her goodbye and joined Emily who was leaning over the railing outside Penelope's door, looking out towards the other hotel.

Derek popped his head back in, "Hey, I'll leave our side unlocked in case you need anything."

"Baby Boy, you know I need everything you have." She winked at him before he shut his side of the door.

She walked over and shut hers. She sighed and decided to see if she could hack into any of the cameras around the club, making the most of her time while the others got to go blend in. For once, she was thinking it would be nice to be the one in the actual field and not behind the scenes.

She was easily able to hack into a couple cameras that were facing the club, as well as one by the back entrance but there were none she could find that showed the interior. In his previous reports Luke did say they had no internal surveillance but she thought in the past few years that might have changed. After making sure her systems were up and running, she laid down on her bed, grabbing a book that she'd put on the nightstand. She was going to have enough excitement on her hands for the next two weeks, some light reading was in order.

….

A few hours later, as soon as the sun was setting, she grabbed her tote bag that she'd packed some equipment in, and the spare key to Luke's room that Emily had brought to her. She opened her door and immediately got a warm breeze crawling over her bare legs and floating through the breezy cover up she'd put on. "Well hello to you too, Miami." She smiled down at the courtyard and towards the busy streets packed with people of all ages but mostly young singles; walking, hollering, and already having a good time.

She descended the outdoor staircase, inspecting across the way, towards where Luke's door would be, seeing that there was not much commotion near there except for a few people outside the room next to his. She walked diagonally across the courtyard but she slowed down not wanting people to see her go in. The group had apparently been waiting for someone, because as she approached, about ten people started walking away from the door. She nonchalantly glanced around, waiting for them to leave. She smiled politely at a girl that was woohooing about seemingly nothing, Penelope was certainly amused by this life people were leading down here, with no care in the world.

"Hey Mami, what are you looking for?" One of the stragglers of the group asked her.

She smiled at him, "Oh nothing. I was just scoping out the hotels. I guess this side has a jacuzzi and that side has a hot tub I just wanted to see what the difference was."

He laughed, "Did you figure it out?"

"Not a clue."

"My name's Raul but you can call me Ra."

"Nice to meet you Raul. I'm," she paused, trying to remember the fake name they gave her to check into the hotel not really thinking about it at the time, assuming she wouldn't be out enough for it to matter, "I'm Elsa."

"Like the princess?" He leaned in, she noticed the smell of cigars and cologne, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't great.

"Like my grandmother before me." She smiled sweetly.

"Well Elsa, I'm right here in this room," he pointed at the room next to Luke's. "If you want someone to show you around tomorrow night, I'd be happy to. My friends are taking in some shows and I was going to go to a salsa club, you're welcome to join."

"I don't think I'd be much good at salsa."

"Oh I think you'd get the rhythm down if you if you gave it a shot."

"If I summon up the courage, I'll let you know."

Someone from his group that was already halfway across the grassy quad yelled for him to catch up.

He stepped towards her, but he was still a couple feet away, he took off his fedora and tipped it at her, she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. "I hope you work up the courage," he put his hat back on his head, "Princess."

With a final nod he was gone. She was trying to keep from chuckling as she continued around the corner as if making her way to the front of the hotel. She gave it a couple minutes before circling back and arriving at Luke's door, she took a quick scan around before letting herself in. She flipped the light on, scrutinizing the tiny room. It was smaller than hers, not by much, but she could tell why this was the cheaper of the two hotels. The comforter was harder, the walls were just a little dingier, the lamps, a little older, and the stench of spring break heavy in the air. She took a deep breath "Okay off to work we go."

She got out the cameras that were no bigger than the pads of her thumbs and set one up to face the door so that anyone who entered would be on it. The small room left little to be desired in terms of discretion. Other than setting up in the bathroom or facing the bed there was little she could do.

In the corner of the room was an oversized chair, she decided to set a camera up, looking down on it. He could change in the bathroom and sleep in peace but the chair and the door were public territory now. She put a listening device in the lamp that was closest to the chair, letting the line fall behind it, the switch to turn it on and off hidden under the shade. She nodded, there was little else she could do, and this was just precautionary since Luke was supposed to be all the surveillance they needed. She began to pack up her stuff when the door knob started turning. "Oh no, oh no, oh no." She gasped, grabbed her bag and ran to the bathroom to hide, her heart beating fast.

Luke walked in the room, noticing the light was on, he moved around cautiously, wondering what could be wrong already. He silently reached into his duffel bag, pulling out the gun he'd stashed in the zipper. He took a few steps into the room shutting the door silently behind him. A few more steps in and he took a sniff of the air, it smelled like cotton candy, his face went from cautious to a confused smile, "Garcia?" He called quietly.

She took a breath of relief, "Oh my God, it's just you." She came out from the bathroom, her hand on her heart.

Luke put his gun back in the zipper of his bag, "What are you doing here?" He turned to her with a sly smile.

"Derek thought it would be a good idea to be able to identify the people who come into your room for these immaculate parties you will be hosting." Her snarl at the end did not go unnoticed by him.

"So you came alone? I don't think that's safe."

"You weren't supposed to be here yet! Aren't you getting reacquainted with your club friends?" She set her bag down on the bed, not wanting to hold the heavy thing while she spoke.

"Yes and I was, for the past five hours, but at some point I have to shower and change and all that."

"Right, okay. Well, it's good you're here anyway, I didn't want to invade your privacy-"

"I think the whole team is going to be well past that pretty soon." He wasn't happy about it but he'd resigned himself to the fact that it was just part of the job.

"As I was saying, I put a camera there," she pointed up to the vent above the front door. "It just faces the door, and one here," she pointed up to the fire alarm. "It only catches the chair, so as long as you're changing elsewhere your privacy in this room is safe. There's also a listening device in this," she touched the floor lamp, "but you can switch it on and off. We can communicate if you wear this," she handed him a small earpiece. "Emily said to check in, either every night or every morning depending on when you're able, in case we need to give you info. I guess if you have someone over you can just click it when you turn on the lamp, unless it's a lady guest, in that case, please don't." She frowned in disgust, at the floor.

"Right, thanks Garcia." He grinned at her, shaking his head at her comments.

"I better get out of here. You had a long day of travelling so you have to get your rest."

"Actually, I'm working tonight."

She spun around, "Already?" she squinted at him.

"This place isn't normal. It's spring break time, more bartenders, more food vendors more," he raised one eyebrow, "entertainment. I'm going to be there tonight for fantasy week."

She scoffed, "Whose fantasy are you?" She put her hand on her hip knowing damn well the answer was hers.

He shook his head again, "Not really sure, guess we'll find out." He bent down grabbing his bag, opening it up and pulling out his outfit for the night.

Penelope's mouth dropped open at the sight of the black vest and dark cargo pants that had buttons on the side, clearly put there so they could be easily ripped off, but what really got her was the thing next to it. "What kind of outfit is this?"

"Police man." He studied her face as she eyed the clothing.

"Sexy policeman, who only wear a small vest and a thong underneath his pants? You have fun with that." She scoffed at the outfit.

"What exactly did you think I was going to be wearing?" His question was genuine, he thought this was pretty typical.

"I didn't think about what you would be wearing. Why would I?" She straightened her neck as if that would somehow make her more convincing.

"This is one of the outfits with the most fabric," he eyed the thong. "At first, anyway," he admitted.

"At least I don't have to see that disaster, the club apparently has no closed circuit security system still."

"Yeah, Ruiz is pretty weird about internal security, which makes sense. Any of the clubs that he might be running things through, he wouldn't want to be the one that creates evidence against himself," Luke shrugged. "But hey, if you want me to show you."

She saw him smirk that damn annoying smirk he had, "Obviously not, I wouldn't want to torture myself."

"Torture yourself because then you would want to see even more?" His eyes were gleaming as he waited for her retort but he saw the blush creep up her neck instead and his eyes trailed up her throat to her lips, lips that she was biting.

She regained some composure when she saw the amusement in his eyes, "You know this is right up your alley isn't it? You get to act all-" she waved her hands around frantically.

"I do have to act different, yes. And you'll see that. But I was offering as Luke, you wouldn't like Jay, he's not really your type." He narrowed his eyes at her and took in the semi see-through material of her cover up. The silhouette of her legs was evident in the fading light from outside.

"How would you even remotely know what my type is? And you know what? You're not my type as Jay or Luke or anyone else you decide you want to be, so... yeah." She crossed her arms, not really having a better come back.

He let his eyes close briefly and then he inspected her from head to toe again. She could be mean if she wanted but he wasn't going to be. He did have to get back into character anyway, and Jay was much smoother than he was, so he might as well channel him a little bit, "That's too bad, because I'm pretty sure anybody I can be would very much consider you their type."

Her eyes widened and then constricted in anger, he didn't get to pretend to be someone else with her. She didn't want his stupid pick up lines that he was trying out, "Whatever you say Alvez, but if you plan on getting good tips tonight you should come up with less cheesy lines." She hiked her bag over her shoulder.

He sighed in resignation, she was going to keep batting away any advances he ever made, of that he was sure, he let her go but he watched her leave. "Hey, stay safe Chica," his eyes roamed up her body starting from her ankles until his gaze settled on hers.

She had glanced back over her shoulder, "Yeah well, you too." His signature smile that made her want to punch him and then kiss him was firmly in place.

She opened the door and then quickly closed it, taking a deep breath as she hurriedly made her way back to her room. When she got there she threw her bag on the bed with fury in her eyes. She wanted to break things. "Dumb! Dumb! Women are going to throw money at him for being a half dressed policeman! Dumb dumb dumb!"

She was trying to figure out if she was angry because other women were going to be touching him tonight or if it was because she couldn't. "Ugh! Dumb." She huffed, keeping her back to the door as she shut her eyes trying to compose herself. After a few more minutes she pushed off the door, resigning herself to getting the others on conference call to inform them of the splendid new developments.

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Thank you for all your support; reviews, favs, all of it. It's genuinely appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks for all the favs, reviews, and follows on anything I've done. It's very appreciated.

* * *

"He's already working tonight?" Emily questioned.

"That was fast," JJ interjected.

"Yeah, you're telling me," Penelope growled.

"It is peak season for young singles to be here. It makes sense that they need as much talent as they can get." Matt added.

"Talent? How do we know he has talent?" Penelope groaned as she typed.

Both sets of agents smirked at one another while holding their respective phones.

"Well, that changes the plan a little bit for us, Simmons and Morgan still go to the bar next door but wait until later. First go to the Ritzy Tiger on the opposite end of the strip, we need to start checking if any of the same managers go in between the two more often. JJ and I will still go to Stone tonight but we're just going to blend into the background, no celebration. We might need to save that for a day where we need to act as some type of distraction." JJ nodded at her, Matt and Derek both agreed verbally over the phone before disconnecting.

Penelope was still on the line. "Do you need me to do anything?"

"Just be on standby as usual. Hopefully there won't be anything exciting going on." Emily told her.

"Yeah, just naked oiled up men." Her sassy tone could not be ignored.

"They don't take off their underwear unless they give private dances so it's not as bad as you think." JJ tried to make it seem less saucy.

"And out of respect, when Luke gets on stage I think we'll both magically need a drink refill. He deserves that much," Emily said sincerely.

"Right, well yeah, of course." Penelope cleared her throat.

The two women on the other side smiled at each other, "Okay, Garcia we'll be by later on to check in." JJ told her before ending the call. She turned to Emily, "Do you think she's just worried or do you think she wants to single handedly fight every woman that will be looking at him tonight."

Emily smiled, "I'd say a bit of both."

….

Luke was getting dressed or maybe undressed, in the backstage locker room. He shook his head at himself. This was ridiculous. Of the many times he had been undercover this was the one that was really testing his aptitude. He'd pretended to be a gang banger, a petty thief, a professor, and yet stripper was the one he had to do twice. The world was a funny place sometimes.

"Hey Jay, good to see you man." Ruiz came up to greet Luke.

"Yeah bro, needed to come back make this money. What better place to work than a place where you're not really working, right?" Luke nudged the guy's arm, he hated having to pretend to like this guy who was definitely a murderer and definitely a drug smuggler, evidence or no.

"Glad to see you back. We're putting you back as our penultimate. We haven't forgotten how much the ladies love you," Ruiz leered.

"I love them back. But damn, you must have more confidence than me. I went over some of the routines yesterday with Roger and Dave, you think I'm prepared enough to hold down one of those anchor spots again?" Luke moved his hips from side to side and then his arms, as he joked with the other man.

"You really think these drunk bitches care if you step in one direction or the other? You're fresh meat to some of them and I'm sure some of our long-term customers remember you too. You're going to do just fine."

"Hey boss, whatever you say. Stacy only gave me my costumes for tonight, don't have the ones for the weekend shows."

"She'll get them to you, had to make sure you got some with some extra room." Ruiz nudged Luke's arm this time.

Luke laughed, "Yeah well, you know." He grabbed his crotch, "Keeps them satisfied and all that."

"I know that's right." Ruiz nodded to a tall husky man coming towards them, "Look what the cat dragged in, Joe."

"Hey my man Jay. Where you been? Heard about your mom, sorry 'bout that bro. Can't imagine my momma being gone."

Luke nodded solemnly, "Thanks Joey. Shit happens man."

"Yo, look, we'll leave you to get your seduction techniques on point but I'll buy you a drink after the show, little welcome back celebration." Ruiz patted Luke's shoulder and left with Joey in tow.

Luke let out a breath and shook himself, he'd been back five minutes and he already felt a little dirty, not from what he was about to do, but from what he'd already done. Stripping for some women out for a fun night, was much less demeaning than having to pretend that some of these guys were his friends. They weren't all bad, but Ruiz definitely was.

"Jay," Dave's voice came from behind him as he was tightening the cargo vest over his abs.

"What's up, Dave?" Luke continued to get ready as he spoke.

"Yo, you're doing private rooms tonight."

"Naw man I told you guys, I need time to get back into this. You think I've been working on my cardio in my free time, dude?" Luke always had trouble with the private rooms, he'd do it, he'd give a private dance but sometimes the ladies wanted more and he always had to find a way to turn them down but still keep them happy. It was exhausting mentally not physically.

"Too bad. Roger's not feeling well. He's still going to do the show, but he needs the break, not you. Besides dude, what is there to get back into? You give the women what they want. You trying to tell me Jay _Cash for Cake_ Rivera, forgot how to please a woman?" He playfully punched at Luke's stomach.

"Yeah, yeah, okay man, I got it. But they always want more and I'm going to be tired from doing two shows. I haven't been practicing my gyrating the past few years, if you can imagine."

"That's the best part, it's like riding a bike. You're going to remember exactly how fast and how far you can go once you mount that seat again." Luke laughed at Dave as he moved his hips up and down while waving his hand in front of him in a spanking motion.

"I see you've gotten more romantic in your old age," Luke said dryly.

"Hey man, I'm insulted. I am Mr. Romance. Ladies love me."

"Girls love you, ladies run away." Luke swatted the man's stomach with the back of his hand. "Hey, how do I look man?" Luke shut his locker, and held his hands out to his sides.

"Like you never left. But you better let Roger know what color banana hammock you've got, he doesn't like the same colors to be next to each other."

Luke rolled his eyes, "I see his OCD has improved."

"Boys, it's showtime." They heard Roger's voice call to them from offstage.

"Ready or not." Luke tipped his head and followed Dave.

….

Penelope was sitting on her bed, her laptop balancing on her crossed legs. She'd sat at the desk for awhile but the chair was not like her comfy one back in her lair. Instead, it was a weird hotel office chair that smelled a little like rum. She was snacking on some chips when her phone rang. "Go ahead."

"Hey Hotness, we're sending some photos to you of a few guys we saw at the first club that also seem to have come to the bar. Try to identify them just in case." Penelope nodded not actually speaking to Derek, "You okay?"

"What? Yeah I'm fine. A little bored I guess. Not out clubbing like the rest of you."

Derek sighed, "Penelope, you can just say that you're worried about Luke."

"I'm worried about all of my super crime fighters, including you," she protested.

He sighed again but left it alone, "Okay. See you later, Beautiful."

She exhaled slowly, stretching her neck trying to make the tension leave her body. Since she wasn't useful at the moment she decided she needed to get out of the room.

She grabbed her change purse and walked down to the bar in the hotel lobby, "Can I have a Shirley Temple please?" She smiled at the busy bartender, grabbing some cash out of her purse.

"Hey Princess, let me get that for you." Raul stood behind the seat next to her.

"Oh hey Ra, thought you were off to a party earlier."

"Ah yeah, we're here for a bachelor/bachelorette party. It's a week long event that leads up to the actual wedding. I'm pacing myself." He smiled at her, "Can I sit?

She was about to say no but instead she glanced down at her phone, they could find her if they needed her and she doubted they would. She gave him a once over, he was attractive and a little older than the rest of the crowd, in his mid forties maybe, but he seemed innocent enough, she gestured to the stool next to her. "So who's getting married?" She sipped the drink that was set in front of her.

Raul took a deep breath, "Little brother. He found a nice girl and here we are." He tipped his beer at her.

"Hmm... so why is your younger brother getting married first?" she teased.

"Actually I was married, my wife died in an accident about eight years ago."

"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. My jokes are rarely ever funny," she winced.

"No worries, it's been a while. I'm alright, and to be honest it does look bad when my brother who's in his late twenties seems more put together than I am."

"So why are you over here talking to me and not with the fun rowdy group over there?" She nodded toward the people she recognized from earlier.

"As you so helpfully pointed out most of them are younger than me which means they are also more energetic than me."

"The young ones are more fun I've heard."

"You might be right but most of them are also my cousins so..."

Penelope put her elbow on the bar and caught her head in hand, "Wow, I am just sticking both my feet in my mouth, huh?"

He laughed at her, "No worries, everything is cool. Why did you pick Miami for a vacation? Take this as a compliment, you don't seem like the type to want to hang out on the strip all day drinking from a yard long beer stick."

"Work, there's a small IT conference. It's quite boring but I thought I'd make the best of the surroundings. Although, while the place is beautiful, you're right, I have very little interest in the social aspect of it."

"Me either. My brother is so different than me. When I was his age, I got married at a courthouse and my bachelor party included my parents. We all went to a huge arcade and spent hours beating each other at skee ball." He smiled at her before glancing at his brother taking shots in the corner.

Penelope giggled at the group that was now making Ra's little brother lick alcohol off of, what she guessed, was his soon to be wife. "Arcades are tremendous fun. I always assumed if I got married it would be at some type of establishment that had many flashing lights."

He grinned at her, "I could see that." He gently touched his fingers to her rainbow colored dangly earrings. "You seem like you take the road less travelled, can't be mad at that." He brought his hand back to his drink and quickly saluted her before taking a sip.

"How are you going to survive the next week? If you're nursing a beer and they're…" Penelope observed the group again, she thought one of them was dry humping the other but she couldn't quite see the lower part of the booth.

Raul gave her an exasperated sigh, "I was planning on sticking to the older people's club. So mostly the latin and jazz places. Let them do the foam pool party things." He took another sip of his drink, "So, will you join me at salsa tomorrow?"

"I think I'll be too busy." Her phone buzzed, "Actually, I have to go right now, my boss just paged me. I have to go see what she needs."

"No problem. The offer is still standing if you think you can make it, you know where I am. Want me to walk you to your door?" He was about to slide off his stool.

"No, no. I have to make some work phone calls. You go have fun. Thanks for the drink." She gave him a small wave with her fingers before walking away.

When she was almost to her door she saw the four familiar faces standing outside leaning against the railing. "What's up, Buttercups?"

"Nothing. We just came back early, not much going on. We don't want to overstay our welcome when we might need to do it all over again tomorrow," JJ answered.

"Hey Elsa!" Penelope heard the voice behind her and turned.

Raul was a few feet away, she walked to him as he spoke, "You left your wallet."

Her face made a surprised oh, "Thank you so much. I would've been lost without it."

He nodded at her again, he quizzically took in the four people behind her before tipping his hat, "Goodnight, Princess." He turned back to the concrete stairs, leaving her with the four questioning faces.

She turned back to them, "What?"

"Princess?" Simmons was smiling.

"My name is Elsa. Whose fault is that?"

"Did you go hang out in the bar?" Emily asked.

"Uh, I didn't mean to. Sorry, I was just thirsty and wanted a cherry flavored drink. I had my phone with me the whole time and there was no alcohol. Raul was just there I didn't meet him on purpose or anything."

"Raul?" JJ was smiling as she asked.

"That's the guy's name. He told me that earlier when I met him."

"You met him earlier?" Derek curiously questioned.

"Yeah when I went to do the thing you asked me to do. He's staying next to that."

"And you just happened to meet up with him again?" Derek clarified.

"Yes, it was not planned. I wanted a drink!" The four people were trying to keep their giggles in check as they teased. "Oh you guys, you're the worst." She stepped towards her room, opening it quickly and shutting the door right as Derek was trying to follow her. About five minutes later she heard a light knock, "I don't want to talk to you." She stated clearly.

"Even me?" JJ gave her the sweetest tone she could muster. Penelope rolled her eyes but opened the door anyway. "Penelope, we were just teasing." JJ smiled innocently.

"Yeah, but everybody's teasing all the time. This is all just so..." Penelope gestured erratically with both hands.

JJ took a seat on the edge of the bed, "We saw Luke tonight."

Penelope shut her eyes and took a deep breath as she ambled towards her desk. She began typing, pretending like she was doing something important. "Yeah, how was that?" She tried to sound as if she was asking casually.

JJ smiled, "When he walked out on stage, Emily and I decided we promptly needed to use the restroom. We didn't see anymore of him than we see at work. Well, maybe a bare arm before the song started," JJ gave her a reassuring nod.

"I'm sure he appreciates that." Penelope said curtly, she glanced to JJ but returned her eyes to the screen in front of her.

"I'm sure he does. It's more of a show than anything else. There's quite a bit of production value, it's not some seedy rundown strip club." JJ waited for her to acknowledge her words.

"That's good. I'm sure it makes it more comfortable for you all."

"Penelope, I think maybe when this is over you should talk to Luke about how you feel." JJ tilted her head, observing Penelope, hoping that her small encouragement would help.

"How I feel? How I feel? I don't feel anything! If I felt things I would know because I feel things all the time and this is not a feeling." She squinted and peered over her glasses as she contemplated what she just said.

"We already went over this." JJ said in a concerned voice.

"No, we didn't. You know that I find him attractive. But don't you?" Penelope let her hands fall from the keyboard.

JJ gave her a genuine smile, "Of course. He's very good looking."

"Okay, Derek and Simmons are also delicious eye candy, and I don't need to tell either of them about any feelings. Just the same way you don't need to tell Luke anything, even though you find him to be pretty." Penelope let that hang there, wanting JJ to tell her she had a point.

"I understand but I suppose I just thought maybe there was something between you two that was worth talking about." JJ shrugged casually.

"Well that's great and all, but I don't, so it doesn't matter. As a friend are you encouraging me to get emotionally involved when it's a one sided journey?" she questioned JJ genuinely.

"I don't think it's as simple as all that." JJ scolded her lightly.

"That's where you're wrong, it is," Penelope snapped at her.

"Okay." JJ opened the door, "Goodnight Garcia."

She nodded, "Night, JJ." She knew she had been curt so she had tried to turn her voice back to cheery but as soon as the door shut she threw her head back in her chair, "What is with everybody?"

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Also, once again, with no where else to announce this, the next part of Fog is chugging along. Thanks for the overwhelming PM's about it.


	5. Chapter 5

Some of you contacted me to say you didn't get the notification that I updated my other stories. I don't know? I also didn't get some emails about reviews either, so ya know, boooo technology.

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After JJ left, Penelope got ready for bed. She changed, wiped the makeup off her face, brushed her teeth, and then got under the crisp sheets of the hotel room. Grabbing her book, she turned off all the lights except the lamp next to her. She was thoroughly entranced in the story she was reading when she heard a beep go off on her laptop. She reached over to the side table where she'd placed it. She clicked the listen button and put in her earpiece. "Uh, Garcia at your service."

"Sounds like a date," Luke's happy voice chimed through.

"What do you want?"

"Just checking in."

"Emily didn't give me any instructions, so I guess that means your routine isn't too rusty."

He laughed, "Let's hope."

"Okay so, bye then."

"Wait, wait. Anything happen?"

"Like what? The boys went to a bar, took some pictures of people that might be of interest. The girls went to your club but said they missed your dance. Shame, I'm sure. And I had a Shirley Temple at the hotel bar."

"So, you're enjoying yourself?"

"As much as I can enjoy sitting in this hotel room, waiting to hear about the outside world."

"I'll tell you, it's not so great," he sighed.

"Oh, is it tough letting the pretty girls touch your hot body? Poor baby." She scowled as she spoke in a mocking tone.

"Actually, it's not all that fun to be objectified when I'm usually a private person." He shook his head before registering her comment, "Wait, did you say I have a hot body?'

"Wha - uh - no. I was just saying that, because obviously those ladies think you do. Otherwise they wouldn't have tapped out their atm cards."

"Uh huh."

"Don't do that thing you're doing."

"What thing?"

"The thing you do. Ya know, where you don't believe me, so you open your mouth, and you stick your tongue to the side of your cheek while you smile, and your eyes are all smirky."

He chuckled, knowing that's exactly what he was doing. "I'm sorry. I believe you, I swear." But there was a smile in his voice that informed her that he certainly didn't.

"So... did you make a lot of tips tonight?"

"About a thousand." He heard her gasp, "You didn't have faith in me?"

"I just - you're - I think you're in the wrong line of work."

"I don't think this is for me. It's not always tourist season either."

"Gorgeous women falling at your feet every night isn't for you? Peesh."

"I think I'd be happy with just one gorgeous woman in my bed every night. And also, maybe not having to get baby oil out of, well, everywhere."

She paused not knowing what to react to or how, "I'm pretty sure you could have a girlfriend if you wanted to."

"Maybe, but I'm clearly not that great at getting a girlfriend."

"That's - I - what?"

"I've been single a long time. I'm not as good at the wooing as you apparently think I am."

"Well, women don't like the stupid macho ego crap, so maybe, stop that."

"I usually just don't talk to them, so I don't understand how they hate my ego if they don't even know I'm interested."

"Maybe you should just talk to them. Ya know, like they're people."

"So you think I don't think women are people?"

"That's not what I meant."

"So what is it then?"

"Nothing, Newberson. I guess I just..." Both JJ and Derek's words were coming back to her, but, if she ever decided to take their advice, this was not the time. "Why is it that you think you can't make a move?"

"It's not all that easy, Penelope. Think about it from my side. What if they're not interested? I don't want to be the guy who can't take a hint. So what do I do? How do I figure it out?"

"Uh, I think you just ask them out, flirt, send flowers, or I don't know, give them diamonds or something. Depending on their reaction, you'll know."

"Okay, so you're saying that when you're interested, you make it plain as day every time, so there's no question?"

"Well, no, not as such. It's not that simple, I guess."

"You get it then?"

"Yeah, okay. I get it."

"Maybe you'll admit that it's not some macho ego crap?"

She huffed, "Maybe. I'll think about it."

"That would actually be really helpful if you did. I'm pretty sure it would solve a lot of my problems."

"What? How so?"

He silently shook his head, "It just - uh - it would just make it - it's nothing." He winced, knowing he could've used that opportunity to say something a lot more helpful. She stayed silent in contemplation, "So do you recommend the bar in the lobby?" He decided generic topics were safer.

"It's just a bar. I was bored and thirsty. No entertainment around here."

"Would you prefer sitting in a sticky strip club?"

She winced, not really sure what the answer was to that. On the one hand, a world of no; on the other, she was really curious about his dancing abilities, "You have a point. I'm sure it's interesting, but I guess I don't want to see naked oily strangers."

"I'm not a stranger."

"Yeah - well - right - I - then that's probably more weird then."

"In a crowded club? Yeah, I guess so."

"Right."

"Right."

They were both silent for a few seconds, "Okay, good night." She hung up and pulled the ear piece out of her ear. She set it down, before shaking her head, trying to erase the chalkboard in her mind where there was a half naked Luke Alvez giving her bedroom eyes. "Oh my God, Penelope. Stop it." She took a deep breath, holding it until she felt calmer. She shut off the light and laid down, willing her sleepy mind to make her stupid thoughts go away.

….

Emily and JJ knocked on Penelope's door. It was mid morning already, and she had been rushing around getting ready. Since she didn't have to get up and drive into work, she hadn't set an alarm. She thought she'd wake up at a decent hour and be fine. She had no idea she could sleep so soundly in a less than stellar hotel room.

She walked to the door with a towel in one hand, wringing her hair. She turned the knob with the other. "Hey gal pals. Sorry, I think I'm already used to the late nights and even later mornings they do down here."

"No worries. I don't think nefarious things happen before noon." Prentiss joked, but she was right. The clubs and bars weren't ready for loud party goers yet.

They heard a tap on the adjoining door. A _come in lover_ from Garcia, and seconds later Simmons' and Derek's smiling faces were present. "Anything new?"

"Nope. Hot Pants McGee over there checked in last night and said that nothing interesting has happened."

The others smirked at the nickname but ignored it, not wanting to tease her too much again. "No news isn't good news in this case. We'd rather have a lead." JJ sat on the edge of Penelope's bed, the same way she had the night before.

"The only news I have is that he made a thousand dollars in one night. One night! Can you imagine? What is he doing in there?" Penelope was standing in front of the desk, turning on her computers and hitting the scan button, waiting for it to tell her if there was any activity on the cameras she'd set up.

The team wanted to laugh at her observation, but all of them were also contemplating that amount. "I didn't know that was the kind of money they made. Wow!" Matt remarked, as he also took a seat on the bed.

"He said that it was heavy tourist season, but he must be one hell of a hip gyrator." She squinted at her screens.

"They do two shows a night," Prentiss informed the group. "We were only there for the first show at seven, and you can stay behind in the private rooms or the bar, but then the main show floor shuts down, lets in new ladies and it starts all over again. Two shows a night, multiple dances per show and then," Emily paused and glanced over at Penelope who was listening but puttering around at the desk, "the private dances. I guess it makes sense."

Penelope did a sharp intake of breath when Emily said private dances, wondering how much of that money was made because of those. Derek had seen her uneasiness but decided to keep the conversation going, "Do we know where those back rooms lead? Did Alvez say if it was possible to use them for dealing?"

"No, in the old files he said they're only used for the traditional seedy transactions and not the drug kind," Penelope informed.

"I think that's what makes this so tough. It's a legitimate business, and the women frequenting it are just having a fun night out. It's easy for Ruiz to cover things up. No one's regarding a male strip club with the same disgust they use when thinking about the female ones," Matt said.

"You're right. Female strip clubs are easier to come by, in higher demand, less safe, and more likely to have bad customers and bad owners. In male clubs, at least in theory, the dancers can take care of themselves and aren't abused. Not that all female strip clubs are that way, but there is a reason why they are hotbeds for criminal activity. Those women usually don't mean to end up there. These guys seem to treat it as a fun thing to do for a while until they move on." Prentiss spoke the unfortunate truth.

"I think our victimology is off. Think about it. We know that all of these guys worked at one of these clubs, _most_ of them were strippers, yes, but the guys who weren't... why them?" Derek posed the question.

"They most likely were behind on payments or did something disloyal," JJ answered.

"Bad drug pushers taken out? Okay, That's the nature of the business. But Alvez said that the last guy who died wasn't the kind to deal. He wasn't involved with anything other than the legitimate part of this club. Let's assume he's right. Why him then?" Derek was thinking out loud.

"What you're saying is, even though these guys are all killed by the same person, they might be chosen for completely different reasons," JJ surmised.

"That would significantly change things," Prentiss agreed.

Derek turned to Penelope, "Sweetness, can you check into our victims again? Instead of trying to figure out what they all had in common, just check into the guys that actually danced. Is there any other overlap there?"

Penelope started typing, weeding out the other victims and researching the dancers. "They were all gym junkies, but I think that's understandable." She continued typing, searching for other similarities, the task was a little harder since these weren't recent victims. Most had been dead for years, and their social media accounts couldn't readily tell her that they all went to the same coffee shop every Thursday.

"What about kids? Luke said the last vic was dancing to make a better life for his kid. Anyone else working to help out their family?" Simmons asked.

"It looks like maybe three of them were, but not in the same way. One sent money to his aunt, another to his sister. Only two of them had children. The other guy didn't even pay his child support. There was another guy altogether that was doing none of that. He was hooked on drugs and had been arrested for solicitation. Despite all working together, these guys seem to be quite different," Penelope gave them the information she found.

"There's got to be another connection," JJ agreed.

"When Alvez checks in again, ask him about the vics he knew. Maybe there is something about their work that is similar," Emily instructed Penelope.

"Will do, boss," Penelope chirped back.

"Okay, tonight, Derek and Matt, go to the club that is owned by Ruiz's biggest rival. See if any of the people we've checked into work both sides of something. JJ and I are going back to Stone. We're going to both of the late shows and staying in the bar afterwards." Everyone nodded and then Emily and JJ exited. They were going to the pool in the meantime to keep up their facade of vacationing. Derek and Matt were heading to get food at one of the bars that opened for lunch, keeping an out for anyone in the daytime that could be of interest.

Penelope was alone again after Derek kissed her cheek and shut the doors between their rooms. She sighed, ready to watch footage and then be bored the rest of the day. She grabbed a water out of the fridge and started the video, her fancy schmancy system only alerting her to the parts where there was activity.

It cut to the part where she was leaving Luke's room. Then it showed Luke shutting the door behind her and looking through the peephole and then through the curtain, before he disappeared from view.

The next part was him sitting in the chair. He was wet and only had on sweats. He'd sat down with a book in his hands. "Why does he have to read while he's wet from the shower? What a jerk!" She said to the screen in front of her, getting no response.

The next movement was him walking to the door. The other camera showed him looking through the peephole and then opening the door. There was a young woman with long dark hair and huge earrings and huge- "Who the hell is that?" Penelope set her water down to get her face closer to the screen.

She couldn't hear anything, "Stupid Newbie didn't turn on the audio." The woman handed him a bag and then put her hands behind her back, sticking her chest out. Luke was smiling like an idiot before he reached up and rubbed her cheek. She gave a small wave with her fingers before she disappeared from sight.

He set the bag on the chair and hit the switch on the audio, he was putting in the earpiece and calling her. She saw his side of the conversation while watching him sit with his elbows on his knees as he spoke. He was smiling through most of it, and then she saw his tongue in his cheek just the way she had accused him of the night before.

A few moments afterwards, his smile faded as he shook his head. He'd taken a breath when he'd spoken and then peered up at the camera before moving away from the chair. The conversation ended a few minutes later, and he went to the lamp, shutting off the audio and the light.

There was nothing else until that morning. He went for a run and came back with a sweaty chest. An hour later, he left with a bag, to go to the club, she assumed. "That was fun." She picked up her book and went to lay down on the mattress. "It's probably too hot out there anyway." She sighed, giving the bright window a glance before settling in to read.

She heard a knock on the door a few minutes later. She pushed off the bed and wrinkled her forehead in confusion. She looked through the peephole, and her brow furrowed even deeper. She had her phone in her hand, her finger poised over the button to alert the others that she needed help, before she opened the door. "Uh, can I help you?" Penelope asked the scrawny teenager in the hotel uniform at her door.

"Hi, this came to the front desk for you." He gave her the small basket that had a jar of maraschino cherries and a few drink umbrellas.

Penelope gawked at the basket shocked. "Oh uh, okay, thanks." She gestured for him to set it on the nearby table and grabbed a few bills out of her wallet.

"Thanks, ma'am." The young man backed out of the door and shut it quietly behind him.

She was staring at the basket. "Ra is very good at the wooing, isn't he?" She reached in and examined the generic jar of cherries and then laughed at the many umbrellas scattered around the basket. As she dug further in, she found some grenadine syrup and a small bottle of ginger ale. She laughed, "I guess I can make my own Shirley Temples now." She placed all the ingredients back in the basket and set it on the floor in the corner of the room, hoping the profilers wouldn't bother to inspect it further.

She sighed and got back onto the bed to resume reading. She laid back and opened her book settling in. She quickly snapped back up, "Did that kid call me ma'am?"

* * *

Thanks for all the support! I love hearing from you in any capacity.


	6. Chapter 6

A lot of delays, between power outages and physical therapy it's been tough to get updates out. I appreciate all of your support!

* * *

Penelope heard a buzz coming from her computer. "Ugh!" She sat up, wiping the drool from the side of her face and pushing the stray hair out of her eyes. She tried to get up quickly, knowing it was the alert for the audio. "This better be good. I was having a nice dream."

"No need to dream, Hermosa. I'm real." Luke was silently chuckling.

Suddenly she was alert. "See, ego much?"

"You said to flirt," he protested.

"That's - that's not how I meant to do it." Her words slowly showed her that she didn't have a leg to stand on. "What do you need?"

"I'm hosting the after party tonight. Last show ends at one so we'll probably start here around two."

"The party starts at two in the morning? What about your neighbors?" Her voice was incredulous.

"That's not how this works. Everyone will probably start in my room, then we invite the neighbors and then the passersby, and pretty soon we're spilling out of rooms and throwing each other in the pool. It's not like I'm setting up dinnerware in here."

"Fine. I will let the team know."

"Sorry I'll have to keep you up tonight. I guess you can't go back to the bar for a drink."

"Actually, that's not really necessary anymore." She smiled over towards the basket she'd left on the floor. She got up and went to open the jar of cherries to pop a couple in her mouth. "And at least it's you and not the couple upstairs that had sex at three, then five, and then seven. I woke up to moaning about how big Jake was three times, but I have yet to hear her actually come. Maybe she's just quiet because she's in shock." She was shuffling around, typing off a message to Emily about Luke's plans.

Luke was laughing on the other end, "Poor Jake has some things to learn."

"Maybe you can teach him how to gyrate properly."

"I don't give private lessons."

"Just private dances."

He rolled his eyes, "You just have to ask, Chica."

"See, there it is again."

"You can dish it out, but you can't take it?"

"Whatever. Just remember to switch the audio on tonight since you forgot last night."

"What? When?"

"Pretty brunette that was ready to have your babies. Ring any bells?"

"That's Stacy. She does the uniforms. She was dropping mine off."

"In the middle of the night?"

"I needed to try them on and get them back to her this morning, to give her enough time to fix them for tonight. Plus, the office hours of a club are a little different."

"Sure. Whatever you say. She was definitely willing to help you try them on and take them off."

He chuckled, "I didn't need help."

"Really? I think that would be your perfect opportunity to try the wooing skills you're supposed to be working on."

"That's the problem, Penelope. It doesn't help if I don't want to woo her."

"You rubbed her cheek before she left."

"I have a different persona as a dancer. I have to be a little more smooth than I really am. Doesn't mean I like her."

She cleared her throat, "Well, I will make the team aware of your late night shindig. We'll be here if you need us." She was about to hang up. "Oh wait! I almost forgot. We were researching the victims again this morning. We think that the dancers were killed for different reasons. Em wanted to know if you could think of anything the dancers had in common besides the obvious. Same reasons for dancing? Same motorcycle? Same waxer?" She snickered at the last part.

"We all have the same waxer. The club pays for it," he informed her without thinking.

"You - you had to get waxed?"

"Yeah. Uh, supposed to be smooth to the touch, pretty much everywhere anyone can see." He spoke apprehensively, waiting for the teasing to begin.

"Right."

"Right."

"Talk to you later." She quickly disconnected and set her palms down on the desk in front of her, breathing deeply. "I don't even know what to… Agg! Stop picturing that!" she reprimanded herself. She pushed off the desk and decided to take a shower. She told herself it was from the sweaty nap she just took, courtesy of the South Florida heat, but she wasn't mad that it would help distract her from the other issue she was currently dealing with either.

….

A little after one in the morning, the team was in her room again, waiting for the party to start. Emily and JJ were going to attend, but only if other hotel guests joined. Derek and Matt were supposed to be doing a few calculated rounds of the property throughout the night.

Penelope heard the now familiar buzz, coming from her computer. She saw Luke by the lamp he'd just turned on. She hit the split screen so they could see the front door and the corner camera simultaneously, while hearing the audio.

"Jay, where you want the panty droppers?" An unfamiliar voice filtered through. They saw one of the guys that they knew was a bartender at the club walking in.

"I am the panty dropper, Matty." Luke had a weird sneer on his face, one Penelope had never seen before.

Matty chuckled, "Fuck bro, I know that's right. You see that bitch trying to lick your arm when you picked her up? I thought her titties were going to pop out."

"You didn't have a good view then, because they definitely did." He patted the guy on the back as more people started filing into the room.

"You forgot about _Cash for Cake_ Rivera?" Dave sent his hand out to connect with Matty's.

Penelope was glaring at the screen, her face scrunched up, "Oh, I don't like this." The other four behind her were observing the screens. They all acknowledged why it wasn't pleasant, but were also impressed with him. His demeanor was something completely unlike the Alvez they knew.

The room was soon filled with a few people that they recognized from the club, but the majority was women they assumed were from the last show. Luke was near the chair that he'd pushed all the way to the wall to make more room. He had his back to the corner, which was the only thing Penelope could tell was really his behavior, since he was observing the room. He was chatting to Dave about a routine they'd done when Matty brought two girls up to them.

"My friends here wanted to ask you a question." Matty raised his eyebrows at Luke.

Luke gave him a conspiratorial nod, leering at the women in front of him. "Can we help you girls?"

"Since we got a lap dances earlier, we wanted to pay you back. Just to be fair." Luke narrowed his eyes at the girl and leaned in next to her ear, whispering something that no one else could hear. He nodded at Dave who took a seat. The girl who hadn't spoken, started dancing on his lap as he sat back in the chair watching her butt. Luke took the other girl's hand, leading her away from the two occupied people.

Penelope's eyes had never been bigger as she stared at the screen in silence. She was trying to keep her face blank, but she was both angry and ready to let tears stream down her face. Neither of which she wanted to do in front of her four teammates. They were like family, but they didn't need to know how deep her crush on Luke ran.

They knew it was an act. Heck, even Penelope knew it. They still gave each other quick glances, knowing that Penelope was most certainly going to have a very bad night. Emily spoke, "Morgan, do a lap around to the bar, lobby, and pool," he nodded. "Simmons go watch from the balcony, give me an estimate on how many people there are." The two of them slipped through the door leading to their room.

Watching the monitor for a little while longer, the three women saw many rowdy kisses and a few girls walking around in their bikinis, despite the pool being on the other side of the building. The other camera showed the door propped open, with a few people in the doorway but a whole group out front.

"I'm going to have to pour bleach in my ears if I hear these douches say 'titties' one more time," Penelope mumbled. The conversation they were picking up was mostly lascivious and totally useless.

Matt walked back in. "I'd say there were at least seventy people," he reported. "Looks like only fifteen or so in the room. The rest are hanging around outside and in the courtyard."

JJ was surprised. "Looks like Alvez was right. The other hotel guests don't complain. They participate. They really don't get the cops called in to shut it down?"

"Remember what Luke said. It's probable that a few locals are corrupt. If some of them look the other way when it comes to drugs, I'm sure Ruiz can have whatever party he wants," Matt responded.

Emily nodded. "Alright, let's get going." Emily and JJ both had on summer dresses, decidedly tame in comparison to the other party guests. JJ made sure her gun was strapped to her thigh before they left.

Emily made eye contact with Matt, indicating he should keep watch from his room. "Garcia, just let me know if I need to see anything," he told her as she continued to stare at the screens. She nodded silently. They left her alone as they went to see to their tasks.

Penelope continued to observe the debauchery on screen. Nothing happened that she could actually do anything with. She'd calmed enough, trying to remind herself that she could actually act professional when she needed to do so. She could hide her emotions, not well, but she'd hidden her feelings for Luke. At least from him. Especially seeing how he would never see her the same way. He was Luke Alvez to her, but, even as Jay Rivera, he was just as beautiful as the man she'd secretly stare at in the conference room, which meant the ladies she saw touching his arms and flipping their hair in his direction would still want him. Hell, wouldn't they want him more if they knew he was an FBI agent?

It was now nearing four in the morning. The party was dissipating, but it wasn't over. Derek and Matt had done a few loops around the hotel in the past couple hours, but they mostly kept a watch, from the wrap around balcony, on Emily and JJ as they mingled with their fellow party goers. Penelope was doodling with one of her fluffy pens, rolling her eyes as she watched the group on screen take another shot of the panty droppers. The knock on her door was light, and she got up to open it. "Have fun ladies?"

Emily and JJ walked through the door. Derek and Matt came through the other one moments later, having seen the ladies on their way back. "Actually, we met Ruiz. He apparently recognized us from the past two nights. He likes to keep his repeat customers happy." Emily was a little annoyed as she spoke.

"What does that mean?" Penelope's voice was worried.

"He doesn't suspect anything, but he takes note of loyal customers, and both nights we stayed after the show, buying drinks in the bar," JJ said.

"I'm sure most people only attend once. Frequent patrons get extra incentives to attend his clubs every night. He's a good business man, I'll give him that. He put our names down for the vip booths for tomorrow. Which is great, but it also means that we'll have waiters near us at all times, and he probably keeps his eye on us just for service's sake." Emily informed the group.

"That's not ideal, but at least this way no one will be suspicious. Good customers returning, it's a good cover," Derek said.

"I think so too, but we were hoping to make contact with Luke in the private dance rooms, and now I think that might be too risky. All of a sudden we both want private dances when we didn't before and with the same dancer?" Emily raised her eyebrows.

"Why would you need to make contact?" Penelope asked.

"The plan was to get some cameras to mount in the backstage area and hallways. The dancers and employees go through security. Ruiz takes no chances with them. He makes sure that none of his rivals can sneak in as employees. Luke can't take anything in. They check their bags, and they go through a metal detector," Prentiss explained.

"So how would you have gotten them in? You go through security too." Penelope was curious.

"They don't send all the women through metal detectors. They only have one, and they have to get the audience in quickly," JJ told her. "We purposely have gone for the longer line. It's the one most customers avoid, but it moves quicker because it's just a bag check."

"So can't I just take them in to him?" Penelope asked.

Emily took a deep breath, "I don't know Garcia. That's - you're not supposed to be in the field and..."

"Derek taught me how to shoot and even some self defense. I can at least get myself out of a situation if I needed to, but let's be honest. No one's going to wonder about me going into a male revue and drinking drinks with umbrellas in them. It's one time." She was sure this was the safest thing she'd ever do in the field. All those women that attended the shows were never hurt.

Derek tipped his head. "She's not wrong. The audience are not targets, and she would be a one time attendee, never to be seen again." Derek was over-protective and always overly concerned with her safety, so, if he couldn't see the problem, then neither could anyone else.

"Okay. Tomorrow night we'll head to our reserved section, and, Garcia, you'll sip your drinks. At the end of the show, you hire him for a private dance," Emily said.

"You can hide a gun in a thigh strap. You'll need to hide the cameras somewhere too because you'll still have to do a bag check." JJ told her.

Penelope put her hands on the sides of her boobs. "I can fit an entire set of shot glasses in here without anyone knowing." She raised an eyebrow at her.

Everyone chuckled. "Okay, you hand off the stuff to him. Remember to take the full time you hired him for. Don't quickly exchange and leave. That would look suspicious. If there is any reason you feel uncomfortable, just abort the mission. We'll be in the club the whole time. If you need anything, don't worry about blowing our cover. It's not worth the risk." Prentiss gave her a stern look.

"I understand." Penelope told her seriously.

"Morgan and Simmons, you'll be at the bar next door all night. I want you close just in case." Emily told them. "Okay. Let's get some sleep for a few hours so we can be alert for tomorrow." They all retired for the night, leaving Penelope to get ready for bed.

She once again heard the telling buzz come from her laptop as she shut off the bathroom light. She rushed to the headset, putting it in her ear. "Panty melter," she said in greeting.

He tried to keep his chuckle in. He should've known that was coming. "That's the nicest nickname I've got from you. I'll take it," he informed her.

"Don't you have guests to keep entertained?" She asked exasperated, as she moved around the room, shutting off lights before crawling into bed with her laptop.

"The stragglers are all out in the courtyard, so I'm happily alone," Luke told her.

"Didn't want to enjoy that lap dance anymore?" She knew she sounded petty, but she was too tired and worn out from having to pretend not to care, that she couldn't pretend not to care anymore.

"I didn't take anyone up on their offer, Penelope. You know that right?" His voice was amused but more concerned.

"That's why you took the girl's hand and whisked her away?"

"I took her to the drink table and asked her to do a couple shots with me before finding Greg and talking him up," he informed her.

"Well - Sure. Okay, I guess." She was relieved, and she expected as much, but at the same time, her brain had been trying to wander to the worst scenarios all night long.

"Penelope, I didn't do anything with anybody. You know that, right?"

"Okay. Do you need me to write that up for you or..."

"Penelope." He paused and sat on the chair, knowing she'd be watching him on her laptop, and wishing he could see her face too. "I just don't want you to think that I - that I'm the guy we were talking about earlier."

"You're on a case. I get that."

"Yeah, but, I wouldn't like to see you having to pretend, even if it was to catch an unsub." She stayed silent, not sure what that meant. "I'm just saying, I don't think it's easy to watch someone you know do something - act like - it's not..."

"Yeah. Okay," she finally said.

Luke shook his head. She could see the frustration on his face. "Okay. Goodnight, Garcia."

She didn't say anything else as he disconnected. She watched him put the earpiece back in place. He looked directly into the camera, before walking away. She saw the lights shut off a few minutes later. She blinked rapidly, keeping the emotion she wanted to let go of at bay, before deciding she needed to rest as well for her undercover mission tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

The morning came, and Penelope was grateful that everyone was getting a late start to the day as well. She put on another breezy summer dress. At least getting to work was simple. All she had to do was walk out of the bathroom when she was done with her mascara. She knew the other four had plans for lunch at different venues, so she was on her own. She called down for room service and watched mindless daytime tv while she ate.

The buzzer went off just as she was about to stuff the last strawberry from her fruit bowl in her mouth. Rolling her eyes, she got up to answer. "I feel like I should have given you a special ringtone because the loud buzzing of this scares the crap out of me all the time."

"And good morning to you too, Beautiful." Luke's voice was husky as he spoke.

"What is up with you?" Her face contorted with confusion.

"Uh, nothing, Garcia. What are you up to?"

"You called to chit chat?"

"No, I called to check in, like I'm supposed to. I am not going in until later. I have to pretend to be recovering from a big party remember?"

"Well, it's good you called. I forgot to tell you. There is a change in tonight's plan. Em and JJ met Ruiz last night at your happening shindig, and he gave them VIP treatment-"

"Ah, yeah, sometimes he does that for frequent visitors or if they are big spenders. My guess is both of them tried to pretend they were pretty drunk, and they bought lots of drinks and the more expensive tickets to get the better view of the place."

"You'd be right. Anyway they can't be there under the radar, but they wanted to get you some extra surveillance equipment, some small cameras, so I'm going to bring them to-"

"No!"

"It's not your decision," she said angrily, "I can do this!"

"I know you can, but I don't want you in danger."

"I won't be. I'll be a girl that wants a private dance from you. It's not suspicious. Isn't that where you make your best money?"

He took a deep breath trying to calm himself. "Fine. I get it. Just, if there is anything, I mean anything, that makes you uncomfortable, you alert me, okay? I don't care about my cover. Your safety is number one in there, alright?"

"Yeah, I promise." She bit her lip. "Didn't you say this was a pretty safe operation?"

"Yeah, it is." He had to concede that fact. "I guess you get to see my moves then." He said it quietly, a little embarrassed.

"Out of respect, I can do what the ladies have done and quietly excuse myself when you get on stage."

"I don't mean to put a damper on the plan, but, if you're going to request a private dance from me, you should probably watch me. Otherwise why would you choose me? It just wouldn't make sense." He was perfectly logical.

"I guess I didn't think about that. I can still avert my eyes, even if I don't leave my seat."

"You could."

"Right."

"Right."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you tonight, unless you have something to pass along?"

"I'm thinking there will be another after party here tonight."

"Again? Don't they switch up the venues?"

"Yeah, but, if I don't go to any of the other after parties, it will look suspicious, so it's safer to be the host."

"I will let Em know about the possibility."

"Okay. Have a good day, Penelope."

"You too." She hung up, weirded out by his various changes in mood in just one conversation. She tried to control herself when she thought about the fact that he was right. She was going to need to watch his dance or at least look like she was. Otherwise it wouldn't make much sense when she went to request the private room.

Suddenly she felt very hot and figured her face was red. She walked over to the air conditioner, turning it up and standing in front of it until her nose felt like a popsicle. "That's better." She nodded and then prepared for her night that was sure to be interesting.

….

Luke felt restless. He already had a tough time sleeping in. It wasn't in him anymore, not to wake up early. He had gone for a run and then called Penelope, hoping to talk to her for a bit. She made that all but impossible. He decided to head to the club early. There were always routines to work on or logistics to work out. At the very least, the club managers would be there, sorting out details.

He showed up at the door and saw Joey. "Hey, Jay. What are you doing here? Had to sneak out on a lady early, did you?"

Luke gave the man a slight nod and clasped his hands with him and then fists. "Naw, man. My sleep schedules off from traveling. Thought I'd come see what's up." Luke set his bag down on the counter. Joey opened it and barely glanced at it.

Luke walked through the metal detector, and Joey handed him his bag on the other side. "Ah. Well, Rog and Greg are back there arguing about whether or not they should spin left or right before they whip off their pants."

Luke scoffed, amused but not surprised. "Sounds like it's serious. Hey, man. Why are you out here anyway? Someone call in?" Luke nodded to the metal detector.

"Ruiz had to take the new guy to the other club to show him the ropes, in case we need him over there. Just covering for an hour. Not like it's busy." Joey gestured to the two waiters behind the bar who were moving boxes of beer.

"Alright, man. Take it easy." Luke made his way to the backstage area. He nodded at Greg and Roger who were indeed arguing as they each kept trying out new moves to convince the other it was the right way to go.

Luke shook his head and decided to make sure all of his costumes were in place. He was almost done when he heard his name being called. He peeked around his locker door.

"Jay. Hey. Joey said you were here." Ruiz came up to him and gave him a greeting much like Joey's.

"Yeah, you know me. Restless as ever. What's up, man?"

"Just trying to get shit together. Can't trust nobody to take care of shit on their own."

"Yeah, sounds about right. Everyone too busy getting high?" Luke questioned casually as he pulled out the oil he was coming to hate so much.

Ruiz scoffed. "Yeah something like that." Luke saw the man stare at the wall as if he was going to punch it. "Anyway, no matter. I was just coming to tell you, you don't have to do the private rooms tonight. Rog says his feeling alright."

"Uh, actually, if you don't mind, I could really use the money." He saw Ruiz raise an eyebrow at him. "I know we all know I don't enjoy the private dances as much, but I remembered it's not so bad once you get into it. And that hotel? Well, you saw it. I'm not staying there forever."

Ruiz laughed, "Yeah. So you're staying for awhile then?"

Luke shrugged. "Nowhere better to be anymore. At least I know some people here. Might as well get an apartment. Stay for a bit. That is if you're not planning on getting rid of me once Spring Break is over." He jibed but waited for Ruiz's reaction.

"Hell naw, dude. You're a money maker. And I've never had you flake on me. That's saying something." Ruiz scoffed, clearly annoyed. "I'll check around for a place for you. I have those other buildings, but I've been looking into buying an apartment complex. You never know."

"Sure man, thanks. Until then, do you mind if I do the rooms tonight? Still going to need to save for a deposit, or at least a room on the nicer side of the hotel." Luke elbowed the man in the stomach in jest.

"Oh shit, is that why you didn't get laid last night? The ladies don't like cockroaches?" He laughed.

"Hey, it's not that bad, but I do hear that they like a good view. Maybe I can move up to the top floor and fuck them over the balcony." Luke raised his eyes at Ruiz who was laughing as he held his stomach.

"Oh, sure, Cash for Cake. How can we forget? I forgot how funny you were. Alright man, I'll tell them to open all the rooms. Everyone gets big tips tonight, eh?" Ruiz raised his eyebrows at him before moving away towards the club.

Luke took a deep breath. "Hey, is the party at mine since we might as well fuck it up before I leave?"

Ruiz shouted back, "No doubt, no doubt. I'll let everyone know."

Luke nodded as he disappeared through the curtain. He turned back to his locker and pulled out his all but non-existent underwear. "Another day in paradise."

….

Penelope was currently browsing a store that seemed like every other store she'd found on the strip with tiny, not really there, outfits. Most of them were some type of spandex; some of them were even leather which she found disturbing, not just because of the fact that they had to kill an animal to wear such a thing, but because leather in the Miami weather seemed like a terrible decision.

In between all of the tiny outfits that wouldn't even cover one of her boobs, she saw a fantastic strappy pair of heels that had golden sparkles on them. She walked up to them and stroked them. "Hello, Sweetheart. I've been waiting for you." She admired them for a few moments before trying on her size, and then she admired them for a few more. "But I have nothing to wear you with so far." She sighed. "Okay, don't go anywhere. If I can find a dress, I will come back for you." She assured the shoes before putting them back in their place.

She exited the store and saw a smoothie shop. She decided she needed to get a fruit smoothie and a vegan protein bar just to counteract all the leather she'd accidentally touched while scanning the racks. As she waited for her food, she asked the woman behind the counter, "Where'd you get that headband. It's really pretty."

The woman put her hand up to her hair, fingering the sparkles there. "Oh uh, thanks. It's from this shop down the block. Everything is one of a kind, not like the other stores over here that cater to tourists that forgot how to get dressed." The woman smiled kindly at Penelope.

"I'm a tourist and I want to look nice for this event I'm going to tonight, but I want to be clothed." She joked. "Would they have dresses?"

"Oh yes! Very nice ones too, for the club, for the evening, for a picnic. It's a great place, but it's pricey because it's so niche." She handed Penelope her drink. "It's down that way, and the sign outside is a sparkly rose gold. You can't miss it."

"Thanks." Penelope waved and walked down the street, quickly stuffing the protein bar in her face and sipping her smoothie. When she reached the glittery store, her eyes opened wide as she stepped in, seeing the eclectic collection of goods. "Wow!"

A man came up to her, his hand up in front of his body as his eyes roamed, examining her from head to toe. "My name is Marc, and what does the lovely lady have in mind today?" He asked with a slight french accent.

"Penelope." She smiled widely. "Actually- Well, I have to go to an event tonight, and everyone will probably be in tiny dresses, and well I sort of want to still look as good as I do now, but blend in." She gave the description as she closed one eye, wondering if she made any sense.

"Ah, yes. I see you know your fashion already, we can sex it up but still keep your style." He winked at her, and she realized he knew _exactly_ what she meant. "Go go." He started shooing her towards a dressing room. She walked to the small room at the back of the store, and, before she could even fully turn to look at him, he was there with four dresses in hand and a couple of accessories. He started hanging them up on the hook. "Try, try, and let me see each one." He grabbed the smoothie cup from her to free her hands.

She smiled widely as she shut the curtain to start trying on the clothes. She picked up the first one, putting it on and feeling okay, but sort of like it was one of her normal dresses, but with a more elegant pattern. She opened the curtain. "I'm not sure."

He scanned her up and down. "You look very nice, but you don't scream sex yet. Go back." He flicked his fingers at her.

She shut the curtain again and grabbed the second dress, examining the low wide neck, the slit on one side, and the dark wine color pattern with black accents. She slipped it on but couldn't quite get the zipper up. She opened the curtain. "I can't-" She motioned to the zipper.

"That's it." She spun to let him zip it up the rest of the way, but he left the top clasp undone. "These clasps are tough. Don't close it until you're certain you're in it for the night. My workshop, the ladies are set in their ways, and they use these old fashioned clasps." He shook his head. "But this is the dress."

"What? Really?"

"Oui, oui. Très belle fille. You might poke an eye out though." He nodded at her cleavage that was high and fairly exposed.

"Too low cut. It's showing a lot-" She turned to look in the mirror, biting her lip and wondering if it was too much boob. She was technically still working. Then again, Luke was working, and he would be nearly naked.

"No, no, if you want sexy but still sophisticated, this is what you wear. Not too naked, but you show off something, and that's what you're doing." He assured her. "Try on the other one too?"

She nodded and made quick work of putting on the other dress. She stepped out, "This is very nice too." It also had a low neckline she could see this man knew how to show off her best assets, but it was a navy blue dress with a zipper down the middle and darker blue patches on either side of her hips. The skirt was flowy and short.

"Oooh, hmm, well the first dress is sexier which is what you are going for, but this one, this one makes you sexy and hmm... mysterious," he said contemplatively.

She turned to look in the mirror. She admired herself. The flow of the dress accentuated the curve of her breast and hips. "I like them both. Maybe I'll wear this one tomorrow." She winked at the man.

"Hmm, you think just as I do." He smiled. "No accessories to make the outfit?" He pouted at her. He was clearly just as into the whole ensemble as she was.

"No, not with this one. Although I'm in town for a little bit longer. When I have more time, I'm coming back to shop for work, but I have to get to this thing tonight, and I don't think I should really accessorize." She thought about how she actually didn't want to call too much attention to herself tonight and how her accessories were going to be cameras and wires.

"Very well. Get changed, and I will ring you up so you can get going." He started to turn away as she closed the curtain. "But when you come back, I want to hear about this man you are going to give an eyeful to tonight."

He smiled at the curtain as Penelope stopped mid movement. She was stunned, but then she shook her head. "Yeah, I can't even deny it." She said to him through the curtain. "At least I can tell someone about it," she said excitedly.

After she dressed, she made her way to the counter where Marc had already nicely wrapped her purchases. He was leaning against the counter with a smoothie of his own in his hands as he gestured to hers that he'd set on the counter. "So, who is he?"

Penelope blushed. "He's someone I work with. He's very pretty, and he's going to be at this event tonight."

"I see, and you two are…"

"Nothing. I - I don't think he sees me the same way I see him." She averted her eyes and studied the jewelry in the case nearby.

"Hmm… What makes you think that? Pretty girl like you? I find it hard to believe he has not weighed his options."

"Well, we've worked together for a couple years now, and he's… pretty observant, as are the other people we work with. They all see how much I like him. I find it hard to believe he hasn't."

"Maybe, but let's pretend he does know. Would it be simple for him to ask you out? If you work together, are there rules?"

"There are. I see your point. I'm sure we could easily talk to our boss. She's very understanding, but it would be a bit of a risk," she conceded.

"Look, I don't know the whole situation, but, if this man can make you turn as red as this bracelet that I'm giving you to match your outfit, then I can't imagine he's never given you a reason to blush on purpose." Marc tapped her wrist, and she held it out silently for him.

"You really don't-"

He held up a hand. "Ah, you are coming back, correct?"

"Yes."

"You will tell me all about this man and what happened?"

The side of Penelope's mouth turned in a half smile. "If anything does."

"It might not, but let me say this. If you get an opportunity, if he shows you any of his cards, don't think. Do. Trust me." He gave her a knowing eye.

She nodded and handed him her credit card so she could get going. She had shoes to buy, and a libido to check, there was no time to waste.

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Thank you for the reviews, favs, and follows. All of it is wonderful.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone, my life has taken a trip to hell the past couple weeks so forgive the pauses in between updates to my various stories. Thank you so much much for the reviews, it's a nice thing to read when I feel down. Also, I apparently didn't receive a few PMs people sent, I'm not sure why so if I didn't respond to you, I probably didn't get it.

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"Okay. Remember, all of us are going to be just a scream, yell, or yip away, okay?" JJ was smiling at Penelope as she desperately tried to clip the hook at the back of Penelope's dress that was not cooperating.

"Yes, Honey. I know. I really don't think there is anything to worry about." Penelope smiled at her, turning around to adjust her boobs in her dress after she'd finally heard the click of the metal. The deep neckline made it a club outfit for sure. Her breasts were pushed up high, giving her impeccable cleavage. It was short and tight in all the right places. She had been wearing casual summer dresses and caftans. They were nice, and she knew she looked good in them, but, if she was going out to a club, she had to dress up like everyone else. At least, that's what she told JJ when she came in to help her. Emily and JJ were wearing barely there tops with skirts long enough to hide multiple guns. She was only going to have the one, which she was strapping to her inner thigh, thanks to the holster she borrowed from JJ.

The adjoining door opened. Derek walked in and whistled at her. Penelope was standing in the middle of the room, holding her boobs up and putting a few small pieces of equipment in her bra. JJ knelt in front of her, holding the hem of her dress up as she clipped the strap together for the gun. "If you needed help, I would have been happy to oblige." He beamed at her.

"Oh, ha ha, Derek. I'm strapping all kinds of stuff in here." She continued her mission as JJ finished with her task.

Emily was sitting in the corner going over the current footage from the camera in front of the club. "Alright, everyone. It looks like there's about two hundred people inside right now. The next show will bring in eighty and my guess is only about half of the previous show will leave, so we'll have around two hundred and fifty bodies in the building not including staff."

Simmons and Derek were paying attention to her as she spoke. JJ was still helping Penelope as she smoothed out her dress. "Okay, I'm ready. If I get all of this stuff out of my bra, it will be a miracle. At least I get time in that room to try and strap myself back in."

Derek was about to speak, a leer on his face, when JJ widened her eyes at him and put her head down slightly. He acknowledged her silent communication and stopped himself from commenting. Emily raised her eyes at him, agreeing with what she knew he was going to say, but instead spoke to the group. "Okay, Penelope will head out a few minutes after us. Let's keep ourselves aware. When we get the signal that she's out, we can come back here and prepare for another possible long night."

As they filtered out, Penelope grabbed her small crossover purse. She didn't need anything extra to carry. It only held her wallet and her pink lip gloss. JJ was the last one in the room. She smiled at her. "If you need to take this off to get the stuff out, just have Luke redo it with the safety pin. I put one on the inside of the clip. It'll be easier that way." She was about to shut the door, but she glanced at Penelope one last time. "Oh, and, uh, try to have some fun. If you can." Her eyes were lit up mischievously.

Penelope didn't say anything, but she continued to stare at the door after it closed. She shook it off and waited the ten minutes Emily told her to, before heading to the lobby and hailing a cab to take her to the club. She decided JJ was right. If this was her only night out, she was damn well going to enjoy herself.

….

Once she got to the club, she headed to the prepaid ticket line which was much shorter than the regular line. She showed her phone with the emailed receipt to the bouncer, then made her way to the longer security line. When she got to the front, she opened her bag. The bouncer waved a flashlight in it, then hitched a thumb over his shoulder. "You're good to go."

She smiled at him but recognized the ridiculous minimal security when it came to the ladies. "Don't they know how many hidden zippers any given purse could have?" she muttered to herself. She shook it off, heading straight to the bar and ordered a virgin daiquiri before finding her seat.

She admired the venue. All the booths and tables were set up in circles facing the stage so the occupants were still able to have their drinks and talk to their friends. She had shown up only fifteen minutes before show time, but it didn't look too crowded. She thought these shows sold out. "Don't worry. It will be a good time." A pretty woman that was probably in her late forties smiled at her.

Penelope gave her a wide grin as she sat down next to her. "I've never been before. Normally I don't like crowds, but in this case I'd rather blend in."

The woman laughed. "I know what you mean. I was like that the first time I came too. Now, I'm always volunteering to get on stage."

"How many times have you been?" Penelope didn't want to sound judgmental, but she knew her face turned up in curiosity.

"To this club, about five. To the club across town, only two. But there are other shows like this in Vegas and some travelling ones. Honey, I've tried them all. I started going out when my husband and I divorced. It was the best thing I ever did." She sipped her drink as she spoke to Penelope.

"I hope I enjoy it as much as you do. Are you here alone?" Penelope queried. Maybe she wouldn't look so desperate if other people came alone too.

"No, I'm with a group, but sometimes, when we come last minute, we have to grab whatever tickets are available, and we get split up." She pointed at a couple girls in the room, waving at them when they noticed her.

"Oh, so I'm the only loser by myself then?" Penelope took a sip of her drink, wishing it had real alcohol in it.

"Oh ,no. I've gone alone. Usually you make friends anyway. Drunk girls always make friends." She giggled.

"I'm in town on business, and I don't think any of my IT colleagues would want to come, so I thought I'd experience it by myself." She gave her explanation to the woman. "I'm Elsa."

"I'm Renee. Nice to meet you. And no worries. I'm right here for ya. We're Stone Mountain friends to the end now." She patted her hand. "Let me get you another. You'll want to order before the show starts, otherwise you'll have a hell of a time."

"Oh, uh, no, you don't have to-" Penelope wasn't sure how she could possibly explain her virgin drink to the woman next to her.

"Nonsense, the one good thing that came from being married twenty years is that half of our mansion was mine. Alimony was a wonderful gift from the judge who also thought adultery was a cardinal sin." She explained as she motioned the waiter over. "Daiquiri and another Sex on the Beach please." The waiter nodded, leaving to get their drinks.

"Thank you. Next one can be on me."

"Nonsense, I'm looking out for you tonight. All I ask is that next time you attend, you pay it forward to whichever girl is celebrating a breakup. Believe me, there's always one." She smiled at her.

Penelope gave her a giggle. The waiter came back with their drinks, setting them on the table they were sharing. A few other women showed up, and Renee moved to the seat on the other side of Penelope so the other group could sit together. "Wow, you weren't kidding. It does fill up in here." Penelope surveyed the room after greeting the other already-inebriated women.

"Rarely a spare seat," she agreed. "Especially this time of year. They add extra shows and new acts."

"I'm glad I get the full experience." Penelope eyes scanned the room. She was trying to act like she was people-watching, but she wanted to find the familiar faces she knew would be there. She finally spotted them on a platform to the side. They did have great seats. They were far enough back that it gave them room and close enough to get a view of the whole place. The lights flickered overhead to indicate the show was minutes away from starting. "Hey, have you ever had a private dance in this place?" she asked shyly.

Renee gave her a huge smile. "You bet your ass I have. It's worth the experience. Trust me."

"I was thinking I may never get the opportunity again, and I can't embarrass myself since there's no one here I know," she was speaking shyly.

"They all come out for the opening group performance. You can see which one tickles your fancy. The sooner you know, the better. There are only about eight guys in any one performance, so you don't want them to be taken already. Tell me as soon as you know, and I'll signal to the waiter so you can have first dibs. The other girls wait until the individual performances to see who they like better, but that's a mistake. Go with your instinct." Renee was saying this to her as if it was a secret mission.

"Okay, I'll, umm, try." Penelope was genuinely flustered, discussing the matter.

The lights flickered off and smoke machines started up as they heard some intro music begin. Immediately there was screaming and hollering. Initially it startled her until it made her laugh, watching all the grown women screaming like they were teenagers at a boy band concert. There were spotlights on the stage now, and the music stopped before a bass line dropped. Suddenly there were eight, from what she could tell, very good looking men on the stage giving smoldering looks to the crowd. Her eyes landed on Luke in the middle of the group. She was not a trained profiler, so her curiosity got the best of her. She turned to where she knew Emily and JJ were seated, wondering if they watched this part of the show. They had mentioned not seeing his individual dance, but she didn't know what they did for the group performance. She saw them laughing with each other, taking shots, or at least it seemed like they were taking shots, but she knew that they were spitting the alcohol back into the beer bottle that they made look like a chaser. She smiled, knowing that they were trying to be as respectful of Luke's precarious position as they could be.

"Honey, don't worry about what anyone else is doing. Keep your eyes on the prize." Renee patted her arm, bringing her back to the task of selecting her private dancer for the evening. She had to at least sell that she was unsure, so she brought her drink to her lips as she pretended to be inspecting the men.

The dancers were now shirtless and dancing in sync around the stage. "Wow, that didn't take long." She muttered, her eyes shooting up as she saw them. Her gaze unfortunately always finding Luke first, before she tried to peel her eyes away from him as he hyped up the crowd on his side of the stage, which was also her side of the stage. That made sense. Emily did tell her which section to order online.

"Believe me, it gets better," Renee assured. Just as she spoke those words, five of the men jumped offstage into the crowd, randomly grinding on ladies and letting them feel their chests. Luke was one of those men. She tried to keep her eyes trained on the stage where a couple of guys were grinding on the floor.

She kept telling herself she should really get some more training on how to not completely blow her cover. Maybe she'd take a few rookie courses when she got back to Quantico. As her mind wandered, she jumped when the women at her table banged their fists on the table. Her eyes shot up to see Luke standing just a foot away from her. He didn't dry hump their table like she had seen him do out of the corner of her eye when he was a few tables away. Instead, he leered at the group of ladies before unwrapping Penelope's hand from around her drink, carefully dipping a finger into the concoction, bringing her finger up to his lips, and sucking on it slowly as he smoldered at her. She mustered every ounce of self control she had, squeezing her thighs together as she watched him, trying to maintain a shy smile as she did so. He tipped his head at her, releasing her finger before dipping his in the whipped cream on top and bringing it to her lips. She tried to convey the anger to him through her eyes, but, as soon as she did, she swore she saw the real Luke light up behind the facade. She smiled briefly, before opening her mouth and letting him put the cream on her tongue. He scanned her up and down before moving on to the next table to continue on his journey.

The ladies at her table were whooping and hollering as they applauded. Renee leaned over, "So I guess you've made your decision then?" She bit her tongue. "I'll tell the waiter as soon as the song is over."

Penelope smiled sweetly at her, refusing to turn towards where Luke had disappeared. "Thanks, Renee. No way I can pass that one up." She brought her drink to her lips and took a long swig of it, thankful to all that is good that it contained actual rum.

She watched the dancers retreat to the stage, taking another glance towards where her teammates were sitting. They were being chatted up by Ruiz, as he brought them more drinks. She was thankful they hadn't seen the debauchery in which she had participated. As the song was coming to an end, she chanced a glance at the stage. All of the men were now lined up again, and, before she knew it, they all flung their pants off right before the lights dimmed. She was open-mouthed staring at the dark stage. She most definitely had just seen naked butts. Most importantly, she'd definitely just seen Luke's naked butt.

Renee turned to her laughing. "Holy hell, first timers are priceless!" She was wiping tears from her face as she cried with laughter. "I should always bring someone new. I forgot how much fun it is. Seeing it through your eyes for the first time again is amazing." She waved the waiter over. Penelope was suddenly very glad she'd made this friend. Without her, she wasn't sure she would have the wherewithal to request her after-show treat.

Renee put her name down and even paid for her dance before she realized what was happening. "Oh, no, here. Let me pay you back. You don't need to do that." Penelope protested the woman's generosity. After all, this was all sponsored by the FBI.

"It's my treat. I'm getting a dance from the one that has the earring in his left ear. His name is Dave; yours is named Jay. Don't worry. We'll leave right before the end and get down to the private rooms so we don't have to fight the crowd and keep our boys waiting." Renee winked at her. "Besides, the fee I paid is just for the room. It gets them there, but whatever you decide his activities are worth once you're in the room is up to you. You decide that for yourself." Penelope nodded. She brought the drink back to her lips, trying not to down the liquid too quickly. She chewed on the straw, hoping she would make it through this night without spontaneously combusting.

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Thanks to BookDragon2013 for reading this through and for liking this concept as much as I do!


	9. Chapter 9

If you follow my other stories you've heard about my life taking a nose dive and leaving me no time to update. But I just updated When a couple days ago and I will update both Manor and Signals either tonight or tomorrow, so that's something. If I haven't replied to you, please know I appreciate you and I hope to have the time to get to everything soon.

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As the show went on, Penelope attempted to enjoy the dancers. She did see the appeal, but, despite always being very sexually vocal, she wasn't too entranced by this scene. She was certainly very interested in sex, but she liked being extremely weird and freaky with one person, not necessarily screaming at them from afar. She shrugged. She understood. She could see that the different guys on stage were appealing in their own ways. She glanced at Em and JJ one more time, noticing that they were watching the dancer on stage and clapping. They were so good at this. She could tell they weren't leering at the dancers; they were casually watching but still pretending to be enjoying the atmosphere. She turned to Renee, trying to make comments as well and even yelling across the table to the other girls about them volunteering for one of the dances.

Renee turned to her as the current song ended. "Hey, your boy is up next." She leered at her. Penelope froze. She had been too busy putting the private dance out of her mind that she forgot that she still had to get through his individual routine.

It was almost the end of the show. They had seen six individual dances. She knew only Luke's dance and the lead's dance were left and then, she assumed, the group finale. She heard the announcer's voice boom over the speakers, something about Latin love and who wanted to get touched by a Spanish tongue. She couldn't really make out the words because her brain was going to short circuit. Was she supposed to leave? She knew she had discussed this with Luke, but it was clear she already had a reason to choose him from his earlier performance. She was going to excuse herself to go to the bathroom, but then she rethought it. If she was supposed to like him enough for a private dance, she wouldn't leave when he came onstage. She chanced a glance to the ladies. They had called Ruiz over and were flirting with him, paying absolutely no attention to the stage at all.

Renee's voice brought her back to the moment. "Your man is hot!"

Penelope followed her line of sight. Luke was on stage rolling his body to the song that was currently playing. Her eyes were wide as she watched him move. If she hadn't thought about sleeping with him before, she sure wouldn't have a choice but to do it now. Her mouth felt very dry all of a sudden, remembering that this man was the same one she worked next to everyday. She'd imagined him shirtless plenty. She'd imagined him naked a few times too. Sometimes, when she was alone at night, she had definitely tried to picture him moving on top of her, a fact she'd vehemently deny if anyone asked. He pulled the button up he was wearing apart, revealing his naked chest underneath. The shine on his chest reflected in the light. "Holy cow." It was a very genuine reaction to what she was watching.

"He's all yours later." Renee nudged her shoulder.

"Uh huh." Penelope's face was creased. She almost seemed confused, but she was somewhere between turned on and shocked. She watched with envy, as a couple of girls were led onstage. She saw him dance in front of them and then run his hands up their arms or legs, but she could tell he didn't linger the way the other guys had. He was grinding near them but never actually touched them. Apparently he was quite the hit, judging by the screams and cheering.

Her eyes widened as he stood on the arms of the chair and mimicked humping the woman's mouth that was sitting there. She'd already seen some of the other dancers do the same or worse, but this was Alvez. Renee leaned over. "Ya know they usually have an after party. If you offered, he might take you up on it."

"Wha-wha-offer what?" she stammered.

"Didn't you just say 'lucky girl'?" Renee was talking to her, but her eyes were trained on the stage as she clapped.

"No I didn't. Oh my God! Did I?" She turned to Renee for confirmation, but the woman was thoroughly spellbound by Luke's circling hips.

Penelope turned back to the stage in time to see Luke drip some sort of oil down one of the women's chests. He ran his fingers down her arm before grasping her wrists putting his palms on top of the backs of her hands and guiding her to rub the oil onto herself. Then he let her rub the remainder on him. Penelope knew that him being the big tease and playing hard to get wasn't so much his schtick as much as him holding back, but she knew that's not what it appeared like to the average attendee. Especially because, as the oil started to shine in the many flashing lights, the entire crowd went wild. She squinted at the scene. She had to admit it was a sexy thing to watch, and she supposed, if she imagined herself in that position, she'd feel like screaming as well.

As the song was coming to an end, Luke finally went to the last woman on stage. He picked up the whole chair with her in it, making the audience scream enough to make Penelope want to cover her ears, but her fingers were too busy clutching the glass that was on the table. He set the chair down in the middle of the stage before dry humping her to the beat. She noticed that quite a few ladies were on their feet cheering. She suddenly felt like she needed to drop all of the ice from the glass down her dress just so she wouldn't combust, but she settled for bringing the glass to her lips and getting a few ice chips in her mouth. Sliding them around her tongue, she wished she could have brain freeze, if for nothing else than to distract her. "You need another drink, Honey?" Renee's voice broke into her head.

"Uh no, no. Really the best thing I could have right now is ice." No use hiding her attraction now. She could easily tell herself she got very good at undercover work instantaneously, but even she could see through that.

The song ended. Luke received the loudest applause so far. Penelope surveyed the crowd, observing the screams and excitement. She was impressed to say the least. Her eyes wandered to the VIP booth again. She saw that Emily and JJ were busy flirting with one of the scantily clad waiters that were still milling about. She was thankful they hadn't seen her reaction or the fact that she had not given Luke the same courtesy they had. But more than anything, she was glad they hadn't seen Luke. She felt a pang of jealousy knowing these other women had, but at the same time she felt a sense of pride knowing he'd never belong to them. He didn't belong to her either, but she knew the real Luke, and that's more than any of them would ever be able to say.

"This guy is good too. He's the main attraction, but he's too generic for my taste." Renee was informing Penelope about the dancer that had taken the stage while she was musing about things she shouldn't have been.

Penelope peered at the stage to see a decent looking man dancing his ass off. She heard the same woos she'd heard all night, but she was in agreement with Renee. As good looking as this guy was, he wasn't Luke. His skin wasn't the natural tan of the man she thought about when she was alone in the shower nor was he as intriguing. There was no mystery to his face. She smiled at the other girls at her table who were rigorously impressed though.

"When do we leave to get to the private rooms?" Penelope wanted to make sure she didn't mess up her mission, but she was also very excited to see Luke, which judging by Renee's smirk was all too obvious.

"Finale is starting. You'll want to see some of it, but, as soon as the end creeps up, we'll book it while the crowd goes wild." She winked at Penelope.

Penelope nodded, but she suddenly felt very anxious. She was going to see Luke in a few minutes, and she wasn't sure how good he'd gotten at his job, but she wasn't sure how she was going to hide her body's reaction to him. She took a swig of her drink with the last bit of alcohol in it, preparing herself for a very hard day's work indeed.

As the last song came on, she watched all of the men come out in matching outfits doing a choreographed routine. There was lots of posing and igniting the audience's last pieces of sanity, burning any semblance of reason out of a hundred women simultaneously. Penelope didn't take her eyes off Luke as he pulled his shirt off yet again. He held it in his hand, swinging around as he hyped up his side of the audience. They were all making their way through the venue for the final goodbye. Luke made eye contact with her as he came close, a leer on his face she'd never quite seen. He strutted towards her, throwing his shirt into her lap before looming over her chair, his lips close to her ear, his breath blowing her hair as he spoke. "Nice dress, Chica." He pulled back, finishing his rounds before making his way back to the stage for the final moves.

The shock on her face must have been abundant because Renee reached over, gently shutting her jaw for her with a good natured laugh. "C'mon, let's head out. You're not going to want to keep that man waiting."

Penelope let Renee grab her hand and lead her through the darkened room to the long hall that opened up into a round seating area complete with a couple of purple velvet love seats. The area was dim, save for the purple light bulbs overhead. Penelope took in the scenery, noting it did scream 'sex.' There was a security staffer, a big guy, that looked like a brick wall, standing in the shadows and also a bartender at a small stand. "You want another?" Renee tipped her head to the barman.

Penelope had to think of another excuse. "No, I think I'd rather be as sober as I can to remember every minute of this." She rolled her tongue making Renee laugh. She took a seat watching her newfound friend procure another beverage. Penelope had Luke's shirt in her hand. She tried to covertly bring it up to sniff it. She always loved the way he smelled.

Another few women straggled in, getting drinks and impatiently waiting for whomever they hired for the night. Renee sat down next to her. "Do they come right off stage? They must be exhausted. They do this so many times?" Penelope questioned.

"Well, _they are_ supposed to be known for their stamina." Renee winked again. "No worries. They are pros at quick showers, and then they come right on over." She sipped her drink.

As she spoke, a dancer came through a curtain near the security guard. The woman she assumed paid for his company stood up immediately. Another bodyguard appeared behind him. He quickly got in between, asking the woman for her name to ensure she was the right person. The dancer she believed was called Paul then put his hand on the small of her back, leading her into one of the closed off rooms. The bodyguard followed them in, which made Penelope worried. "Wait, the bodyguards go in the room with you?" Her scared look made Renee pat her hand in reassurance.

"Only at first. They explain the rules. Then they stand outside the room in case they're needed. Of course sometimes the dancers ask for more privacy, and they dismiss them altogether."

"Have you ever had a bodyguard dismissed?" Penelope wasn't sure what warranted that and what would be more suspicious.

"Between you and me? Yes, I have. Only the once. I went home with one dancer in Vegas. I wanted to play the part of bitter divorcee that rebounds with a hottie."

"I don't want to be rude. I'm just curious. Did you have to-"

"Pay him? I paid for the dance, but there was no sex in the room. Eventually I went home with him, but what we did after was his choice. These guys have the advantage to try almost anything once and most do."

"So, if the bodyguard isn't dismissed, he," she paused, "can hear you?" Penelope asked shyly.

"I suppose, but I don't think they're really listening unless there's a commotion. But don't worry, I'm sure they've heard it all."

"Not to be naive, but is there some sly prostitution going on?"

Renee bobbed her head, indicating she wasn't really sure how to answer that. "Not really, I think most women just get a private lap dance and possibly get to see the full package and some enjoy the touching. The bride-to-be's get dances that were paid for by friends, and I think most of them just drunkenly enjoy the entertainment. I'm sure the guys get propositioned for all sorts of things. I think any sex afterwards is just a consensual hook-up. The money stops after the room. If you are lucky enough to get invited to the after parties, your money ceases to be good, and suddenly they're providing you with drinks."

"Hmm, I see." A couple more guys had come through, escorting their guests to their rooms. Penelope now noticed the bodyguards standing outside the rooms, casually chatting to one another. She figured they rarely had safety concerns, and most of them probably consisted of girls that were just too drunk. She relaxed, seeing that they would get the privacy they needed. Renee shot up out of her seat when Dave walked through door.

She handed the remaining part of her drink to Penelope. "Whoever is done first waits for the other here." She instructed her. "I want details." She shimmied her shoulders before being escorted away.

Penelope was still chuckling as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "I guess you're mine for the night, Beautiful." She looked up to see none other than her Newbie standing there with his annoying smirk.


	10. Chapter 10

I'm not going in any particular order as to which story is updated when. So for my other five stories, I'm not sure when the update is coming but it will be. Thanks for hanging in there. I do really appreciate the reviews, favs and follows. Those are truly the only payment in fanfiction writing. I always leave a review, I know I haven't gotten around to reading other fanfiction in a while but I will get back to it soon, so you'll be hearing from me soon!

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Penelope let Luke take her hand, guiding her to their room for the exchange. She vaguely acknowledged the other man in the room, who was explaining the rules about there being no unsolicited touching and that they should come to an agreement about what the expectations were before proceeding. She nodded, without making eye contact, finding it embarrassing even if she was supposed to be someone else. After the security guy finished, he shut the door behind him, Penelope breathed a sigh of relief. She sat on one of the love seats in the small room.

Luke walked over to the speakers, putting on a hip-hop song with a sensual beat. She'd watched him saunter to her slowly. He took the drink from her hands, bringing it up to his nose to sniff it. "Rum?"

"Not mine." She was trying to drag her eyes away from him but was failing miserably.

"I tasted some on your finger earlier." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"The drink was bought for me. I had no choice." She threw his t-shirt at him.

He nodded, catching the shirt, setting the drink down on the small table, and dropping the shirt next to it. He took a seat on the loveseat as well. "So what's your fancy, Elsa?" She raised an eyebrow at him, indicating she was unamused. He chuckled. "Okay, okay. Just give me what you got." He leered at her.

"It's going to take me a minute to get it all out." She stared down at her chest trying to decide what the best choice of action was.

His eyes widened. "I should've figured." He was openly admiring her cleavage, so painstakingly pushed up perfectly.

She started to pull at the top of it, but his hand darted out to stop her. "Wait," he commanded. He stood up, taking the open jacket off his shoulders and flinging it to the table as well, leaving him bare chested once again.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Has to look authentic when they come to do the five minute check."

"Five minute check?"

"Weren't you listening to the rules? They come back in five minutes to make sure everything is okay."

"Every five minutes?" she asked incredulously.

"No, silly. Just the first five, so they can check with us, get a gauge for time, and we can signal if we want an interruption."

"Oh, gotcha."

"So first we make sure it looks like we want to have a blast, and we're gonna need some privacy." He unbuttoned his white pants, and she noted his skin appeared very lickable. The brightness of the cloth so easily contrasted with the natural tone of his skin. She didn't mean to follow his fingers as they moved, but she was hypnotized by them, seeing the fabric of his underwear exposed since he now had the pants open and hanging on his hips. He noticed her staring and smirked at her blatant appraisal. He wanted to call her on it, but he'd rather keep her in the moment in hopes that she might be curious to know more.

He checked the timer in the corner, seeing they were at the four minute mark. He moved to the couch, sliding up beside her and pulling her leg to him. "Wha-what are you-"

"Believability, remember? You've gotta act like you want to get in my pants, and I've gotta look like I'm contemplating letting you. Okay?" He tipped his head asking for permission.

She nodded her assent. She could've sworn she saw his eyes darken, but she was distracted by her leg being pulled over his lap and his hand settling on her outer thigh. His other arm laying across the back of the couch. He glanced at the timer in the corner again. The boys were always good about time. He leaned into her face. "If I'm going to dismiss him, we've got to look like we're really into each other."

She had stiffened at the contact of his body, unable to relax and not trusting her throat to let words out.

His eyes roamed her face. He'd never been this close to her before. Their lips only inches apart, he could smell her now, a mix of strawberry, a hint of her normal perfume, and a smidge of rum. A thought ran through his head that, if she were a drink, he'd have already been an alcoholic. His eyes came to her lips where there was only a hint of pink left, part of him was telling himself that he didn't actually have to kiss her to make security believe anything, but he promptly pushed that logic away. He closed the inches in between them, letting his lips land on hers. He let out a soft moan, something he thought about apologizing for immediately, until he heard her answering moan coming back to him. He quickly escalated the kiss, pulling her, so she was almost fully in his lap, but her butt was still touching the couch. He'd forgotten momentarily where he was and that what was happening wasn't real because it felt very real to him since he'd thought of it often.

Finally the voice that he'd vaguely heard in the background pierced through the haze of lust. He turned his head. "Uh, yeah, sorry, Ricardo. We're good. For the night. See you at mine later." He nodded to the smirking man, watching the door close and listening for the telling sound of the lock clicking. He turned back to Penelope, not wanting to move too much and awaiting her reaction. She was staring straight down into her lap, eyes wide, saying nothing. He stayed still, although he wanted to reach in to kiss her again, but he was unsure what was going through her mind. She at least had to forgive him for kissing her. They were on the job after all.

She seemed to regain some clarity, finally glancing up to his face and registering her hand was still on his chest, even though she had no idea when or how it got there. She pulled it back as if she'd just burned herself on a cookie tray. "Uh, okay, so I can get this stuff out now. Uh, how much time do we have?" She swung her legs off of his lap as she stood up to get the various small cameras and cords from their storage place.

He let out a tiny sigh, touching his lips, knowing what it was like to kiss her finally. "We've got quite a bit of time, at least an hour before the main security comes to break up the party," he informed her, as he was sitting on the edge of the love seat, watching her twist and turn in her dress. "You need some help with that?" he asked as she continued to maneuver around.

"Uh, no, no. I can get it, and, if I can't, at least we've got some time for me to try." He laughed at her as she tried to reach behind herself to undo the clasp to let the dress open a smidge, enough for her to disengage the equipment. "Of course you're enjoying this! Ugh!" She slammed her arms down to her sides, closing her eyes. She was already feeling hot from the entire night. Luke finally kissing her and finding his lips to taste better than she thought they would. It was all too much. It made her feel like she was going to burst into flames. She suddenly felt like she'd really like to finish the rest of that drink sitting there. But she had broken the rules by having one alcoholic beverage already. She stomped to the table, sticking her hand in the glass and pulling out two ice cubes, one sliding in her mouth and the other in her hand, running it up her forearm relaxing as soon as the chill hit her.

Luke's eyes narrowed in on the skin that was now wet, the trail of it from her hand all the way up to the short sleeve of the dress she was wearing. "What are you doing?" He couldn't peel his eyes away from the drops of water now sliding off of her skin.

"I'm trying to cool off. This club is so hot, and this room is so hot, and - and - and I can't even drink, and then I'm basically going to have to do a full body workout just to get this stuff out of where it's packed in." She lifted the hem of her dress, which was already shorter than her work dresses, high above her knee. She didn't have to pull it too much, the high slits making it simpler to access. She grabbed the gun out of the holster and set it on the table, exasperated. The coolness she'd just achieved now gone again.

"You're carrying a gun?" His eyes flickered to the weapon but had run immediately back to where her fingers were touching the thigh strap she'd just pulled it from. He imagined if she'd only pull her dress up a few more inches he would have a clear view of her-

"Earth to Hot Pants!" she snapped at him. She was annoyed at him, not because he was ogling her, but because she couldn't do anything about it.

His eyes snapped up to her face. "Sorry, sorry." He shook his head. "What do you need me to do?" He rose from his spot on the loveseat and made his way towards her.

"Don't you have a shirt?" she sighed as she closed her eyes again.

"I do, and thanks for bringing it back to me, but, as you said, it's kind of hot in here, and it should still be believable if someone does come to check on us." The button on his pants was still open. She saw that they were hanging even lower on his hips. She wasn't sure if this was her dream or her nightmare.

"Okay, fine, whatever. Just undo the clasp okay? It's really tough, and you might have to redo it with the safety pin." She turned her back to him and tipped her head down so he could better access it.

He closed the few steps towards her, stilling himself so he could remember to maintain his composure before he put his hands on her skin. He tried to get the clasp undone, but she wasn't joking. It was small and, with the dress being so tight, it was hard to undo. "How did you get this on?" he asked as he concentrated on the task.

"I had to hold my boobs in as JJ clipped it. Believe me, it was not easy."

"You're going to have to do that again, or should I just undo the zipper? Will that give it enough leeway to open?" he asked.

"Uh..." She didn't know. It might work, but it would be awkward getting the small mics and thumb cameras out while the dress was still clasped at the neck. "Yeah, do that, and then maybe you can just break the clasp, and redo it with the pin when we're done." She wouldn't mind the air hitting her skin right now anyway.

He cleared his throat before grabbing the zipper and slowly bringing it down to her mid back, just past the lace bra she was wearing. He took a deep breath, watching the back of her head, attempting to control whatever thoughts he'd normally welcome when he was on his own. He pulled the bit of fabric at the top, and the small clasp ripped, letting the dress fall down enough so it wasn't hugging her chest tightly anymore. "Uh," he cleared his throat again, averting his eyes to fixate on the corner ceiling. "There ya go."

As soon as she felt the release of it, she immediately started pulling the small cameras out of the left side of her bra. She whirled around, handing him the small things. His palm automatically came up to wait for the objects. "I don't know why we needed this many. Seems slightly excessive, but Em said just in case you have more rooms or offices or whatever." Her hand switched to the other side, pulling out a couple of small wires for the listening devices and dropping them one by one into his hand.

At first, he'd tried to keep his eyes on his palm, but, as she continued, his sight slipped to where her hands were, mesmerized by the movement and by all the flesh that he was now seeing as she dug into her bra. "Yeah," he answered without thought.

She was done. All of the stuff was out, and she was pushing her boobs back into place and using her hand to readjust them so she felt like they were both pointing the same way. She did a little shimmy to adjust the strap. She noticed his eyes had not left her chest. She glanced down. She knew they were bouncing, and she knew that her low cut bra left little to the imagination, or, if his lear was any indication, it let his imagination run amuck. She wanted to admonish him or even joke, but the lust she saw on his face just made her wet instead. She liked that she had made him stare, turning him on was a turn on for her. He might not like her the way she liked him, but he might still find her attractive, and that thought was fascinating. Maybe she could at least enjoy Miami like JJ told her to. "Can you help me here? I need to get..." She shyly looked at him, "Situated, before you zip me back up."

He finally came out of his trance. "Uh yes, yeah, erm," he cleared his throat, setting the equipment down on the table where she'd put the gun. "One sec, I'm not thinking." He grabbed his long abandoned shirt and put it over the table. If anyone were to walk in, the facade would be up if they saw a gun and surveillance equipment. He turned back to her, seeing her face for the first time in a few minutes he guessed. "What do you need me to do?"

She smiled innocently at him. "Can you hold the front part of the dress up while I - while I-" She put her hands over her bra, gesturing that she needed to put it back in place.

"Right, uh right." He cautiously moved his hands up and almost gripped the dress, but he curled his fingers slightly before taking a breath and grasping the fabric she was holding onto, leaving his hesitation behind. She let her grip go. As she did, their fingers brushed, and she smiled coquettishly.

He narrowed his eyes at her as she did so, not sure if she was embarrassed by the events or enjoying them immensely. He could only answer for himself. "This is one of the best nights I've ever had at work." He shyly smiled at her.

She was attempting to fix her bra or, more truthfully, pretending that it still needed fixing. "It could be worse," she said in a low voice, trying to keep the red from her cheeks. She turned around, indicating he could zip her up.

His hand found the zipper, but he stopped midway just as he'd passed her bra. "Didn't you say you were hot? We have another half hour or so, so you could keep it down, cool off and all that." He awaited her answer, keeping his fingers on the dress, not wanting to take his hands off of her until he had to.

She nodded slowly, letting her hair that she'd pulled out of his way go as she turned around. "So...what do we do until, uh, until- What do we need to do to make this uh-as real as-"

"I think the boys would wonder if you walked out of here without even looking a little bit dazed," he said to her, as he grabbed the stuff he was supposed plant later and put it in the pockets of his jacket and then laid the jacket back down over the gun. "So, maybe we should, umm, I -maybe if your lips were red from kissing or your eyes wide from a private lap dance or something." He was studying her face, knowing that even if she had no undercover experience, acting a little drunk or turned on wasn't something she needed training for, but he threw that logic right out the window as he awaited her response.

"You can probably keep the lap dance. You are getting the same tip from me either way, courtesy of the FBI. So… I guess we can just make sure we're kissing when they come back in." Her sight slipped down to his palm that he was now holding out to her as the words left her mouth. He was walking slowly backwards, pulling her along gently, until he reached the loveseat.

"Okay." He sat back on the couch, dragging her down with him. "We'll do that then." He pulled her leg back over his lap. He purposely did it quickly, hoping her dress would flip upwards. He was pleased when he saw it bunch up around her upper thighs. Since he'd not rezipped her dress it was loose enough in the front that it exposed her bra. "I don't know exactly when they might come back." He did know that it wouldn't be for at least twenty minutes, but it could be up to thirty, so it wasn't a lie.

"Yeah, okay." She breathed the words onto his face, as he leaned in close to her. "Better not blow your cover on my account." She was staring at his lips.

He smirked at her. "Of course not." He recaptured her lips, putting one hand in her hair to hold her to him. He didn't even try to hide his moan as he tasted her again. She grabbed his hair with one hand, letting the other settle on his chest as she had done unwittingly before. After a few minutes, he decided to be daring by putting his tongue in her mouth. She immediately opened, letting him in further before using her own to answer back. He took that as a yes. He laid back pulling her over him, her knees automatically coming up by his sides as she straddled him. Continuing their kiss, he grasped her hips, holding her in place as she kept her palms on the smooth expanse of his chest, her forearms resting on his stomach.

She started to run her hands down his chest but stopped herself, knowing where she was headed. She pulled back from his lips. "This is not helping with the overheating issue." She went back to his lips after she spoke.

He pushed her up and flipped her, so she was on her back, and he was kneeling in between her legs. He reached over to the drink, grabbing a couple of the ice chips in his hands and dropping them on her chest. She hissed at the contact. He leaned down and guided the ice with his tongue across her chest, drawing a pattern from one breast to the other and down in between.

Her breathing was ragged, her hands gripping his hair as he maneuvered across her chest. After the ice cubes melted, he recaptured her lips, happy to taste her again and feeling the extremes of the cold ice to her warm mouth. He settled himself in between her legs, his hands roaming down to her thighs and letting his fingers trail upwards, casually pushing the loose dress up that was now barely covering her underwear. He brought himself closer, and he could feel the heat from between her legs on his erection. The white pants had moved a little further down his hips, and the thin underwear he wore was now in direct contact with hers. Her leg wrapped around the back of his thigh bringing him closer to her, his chest now in contact with hers. Her dress had gone askew. She'd pulled it far enough down her arms to leave her bra fully exposed. Luke let out a small growl as she did so.

She was panting as he rolled his hips. She could feel his erection moving against her clit, and she was damning the fabric keeping them apart. She ran her hands down his chest to his hips feeling the grooves in his stomach that led to his groin, letting her fingertips dance across the sensitive skin there, hearing him moan as she did so. She smiled into the kiss and felt as he smiled back, both their eyes still closed. "Hey Jay! Oh, hey, sorry, Jay, just letting you know everyone's done and hitting the after party if you'd like to invite your new friend here." Penelope peered around Luke's head, seeing the original security staffer that was with the barman earlier.

Luke had purposely stayed in place hovering above her, covering her body, "Yeah, Carlo, just give me a minute, Bro." His voice changed back to that weird tone she didn't recognize, the one that sounded eerily like frat boys she used to hate. Carlo walked out, shutting the door and leaving Luke to peek back at Penelope. He was hoping she would say something along the lines of _let's pick this up later,_ but instead he saw embarrassment, with a hint of fear. "Uh, sorry about that." He was still over her, as he spoke quietly to her.

She tried to straighten her face, clearing her throat. "Why? That was the whole point, right?" She gave him a curt nod before pushing him gently so she could get up. He sat back on his heels, letting her swing her legs off the couch and watching as she tried to pull her dress into place. She stood up, fanning her face with her hands, hoping she wasn't sweaty and red.

He continued to kneel on the couch, closing his eyes tightly, using all of his mental energy to calm his erection into something manageable. The tightness of his pants would be all too telling. He opened his eyes and moved to help her. She was trying to reach the zipper with her hands. "Here, I've got it, Chica," he whispered to her as he took the tiny metal into his hand and pulled it up slowly.

Penelope shivered as his breath hit her back. "Thanks."

"Want me to pin it?"

"My hair will cover it, and I'm going straight back to my room." She turned to him as she spoke. "So, your money is in my purse. I don't know what a good tip is, but you can take it up with Emily. She just handed me the cash." She gestured to her bag. Luke nodded, picking up the purse and taking out the wad of cash. "Oh, yeah." She moved his jacket, grabbing the gun and lifting her dress again to restrap it but not sure how to do so.

He picked up his jacket, stuffing the cash in the inside pocket. "Want me to help?" He pointed to her leg, where her fingers were struggling to get the gun in its place.

She looked him up and down. "I suppose. JJ put me together, so I don't know how." She smiled.

He nodded, before dropping to one knee and grabbing the gun from her fingers. He gestured to her to hold the dress up so he could see. She bit her lip as his fingers touched the skin of her inner thigh, and she felt the weapon go back in place. He stayed still for only a moment, feeling the heat on his fingers so close to where he wanted to be and smelling her arousal. He took a breath to compose himself before standing up swiftly. "All set."

As he stood up, he smiled at her sweetly, and, of all the things he'd done that night, she was pretty sure that familiar smile was the one that could do her in.

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My fall has messed me up even more. My knee is purple! It's a bunch of different shades as well. Anyway that made the back pain even worse as you can imagine. The rest of my life is still a hot mess but thank you to those that have reached out! It's appreciated! I am still pretty busy these days but know I am trying to answer your reviews or messages. Thanks so much.


	11. Chapter 11

My life is still a hot mess. Sorry for all the updates being sporadic. I think I am updating Signals next. I was trying to get to the stories that have more followers/favs first as to keep less people waiting. All of your reviews are appreciated. If I have not got back to you on Twitter, Tumblr, or here, it is entirely possible I didn't get the notification because my phone has been doing weird shit. I am sorry. I ignore no one purposely. I love hearing from you, don't ever believe otherwise. I was diagnosed with a blood disorder this week, and possibly a new diagnosis for my neck and shoulder all while trying to scrounge up money to get a new apt and fix my car. It's been a journey the past 6 months. But I'm glad everyone is enjoying the stories.

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She walked to the door, waiting for him to put his arms in his jacket and let it settle on his shoulders before he picked up his shirt. She wished she could come up with a reason to keep it. He opened the door for her and put his hand on the small of her back, guiding her to the seats he'd found her in earlier. "Wow, Elsa! I thought I looked like I had a good time." Renee's saucy voice made Penelope come back to earth.

"Oh, uh, yeah." With all of the physical revelations she'd just had, she'd almost forgotten about her newfound friend.

Luke knew he needed to go. He had bugs to plant, and then he had to book it to get back to his room to play host. "Thanks for the good time, Elsa." He bent down to her, invading her space and placing a kiss on her cheek. Then he nodded to Renee and disappeared behind security but not before one more sly glance towards Penelope.

Luke made his way to the locker room to shower and change. "Well look who decided to join us after all?" Dave threw a wet towel towards Luke.

"Yeah, yeah, like none of you have ever gotten… carried away." Luke threw the towel towards Greg.

"Well, just don't let it happen too often. They'll tell their friends and expect even more than they always do." Roger was buttoning his shirt.

"Hear that, Jay? You can't have nookie time just because you're _Cash for Cake_." Paul was spraying cologne on himself.

"Hey! You all always tell me I'm the prude. I finally get on board, and you jackasses can't shut up." Luke was grabbing his clothes to change into from his locker as he threw the shirt he should've made Penelope keep inside.

"Sure. You broke up with a girl before you came back, right? So you're a little more in need, I assume." Dave mentioned.

"Whatever, you guys. She was…" The men waited for him to finish, but he was about to say she was amazing or something equally ridiculous to say about a girl he met an hour prior that paid for his time. He cleared his throat, hating himself just a little bit, but at least saying something he knew was quite true. "I wanted to see her chest not as... confined, so I made that happen. She wasn't opposed." Luke raised an eyebrow at Carlo who had walked in with Joey and Ruiz following.

The men laughed at Luke as he walked towards the showers. "C'mon, Jay. Hurry up. We're waiting on you, and girls don't like to wait." Matty clapped at him as he joined the group backstage.

Luke had the key to his hotel in his pocket. He threw it at Matty. "Go. I'll shower and be right behind all of you." He knew that, if he could get mostly everyone out of the building, it would be easier to place cameras in optimal locations, and he purposely only left a couple piles of clothes and some bathroom stuff visible in his room. He hid his gun and badge in a loose ceiling tile above his bed.

Matty caught the key. "You heard the man. Let's go before any of these chicks get too drunk to remember where they're supposed to meet us."

Luke laughed at the men shouting and hollering as they left him alone to shower. He didn't actually have to do that since he didn't need to wash off after feeling up a stranger. He turned on the water in case the boys were still there. He flipped his phone around in his hand. He swiped the screen and sent a text to Penelope. He knew it was against protocol, but if anything he could say it was to keep up appearances. It was his undercover phone so at the very least he hoped he could pretend, if only to himself, that it was a justified communication. He wasn't losing ground now, case or not.

….

Renee had grabbed Penelope's hand as soon as Luke disappeared from sight. "Let's dish." She let Renee pull her into the bathroom so they could adjust themselves before leaving the club all the while listening to Renee's story. It mostly consisted of her getting a lap dance and then getting to feel the abs she'd been longing to touch. She apparently got a full peep show. She explained in vivid detail what the man's penis looked like. Penelope tried her hardest not to retain the details.

As Penelope sat on the settee in the restroom, she was casually checking her phone as she listened to Renee's story. Renee was adjusting and then re-adjusting her dress, her underwear, her bra, and then reapplying makeup as she spouted about her private time tonight and how it compared to other dancers and venues.

Penelope wanted to text Luke's undercover phone, but she knew that was probably not the best idea. It wasn't necessary, and she also had no idea what she would say, but, as she stood up to fix her own lip gloss, she felt her phone vibrate in her hand. In unbelievable luck, there was Luke's fake phone number and name on her screen. She swiped it to read the message he'd sent.

 **If your friend thinks you appeared to have a good time, either you're suited for UC, or I'm better at this than I ever gave myself credit for.**

She scoffed, but then she couldn't help but smile. She went to the mirror, and she realized she did have quite the natural blush going. Her hair wasn't messy, but it was a bit out of place. A few curls were a little more unruly, just like they should be after you have a good and proper makeout session. Her lipgloss had been long gone, but her lips still had a hint of color and a bit of swelling to them. Yup, she did appear to have had a good time, but she also realized she had that sexy look that can only come from losing your breath as you get felt up. She bit her lip to contain her giggle as she dug around for her lipgloss to join Renee in the mirror.

Penelope fixed her lips and then used a paper towel to get the stray bit of eyeliner under her lids. She straightened her dress again, but then she shrugged. She definitely didn't need any blush, and she hadn't brought any foundation with her so that orgasmic glow to her face was definitely staying put. She tossed her lipglass back in her purse. She was going to take a seat on the sofa again as she let Renee take her time dishing, but she stopped in her tracks when the art on the wall caught her eye. She squinted at it, feeling like there was something too familiar about it to have just seen it in a bathroom before. It wasn't a typical decoration; it was too unique. She pulled out her phone again, and she glanced over her shoulder at Renee still jabbering on as she packed up her makeup kit in her bag. Penelope took a few photos of the framed art, but she quickly locked her phone screen when she heard Renee whirl around.

"Ready, Elsa?"

"Absolutely. I think I need some fresh air. Nothing has made me feel less heated yet." Penelope laughed when Renee raised her eyebrows saucily at her and wove her arm through hers to lead the way out.

As they walked from the club to the corner where they could easily pick up a taxi, Renee paused her oversharing of lascivious details. "Hey, I got invited to the after party. I told my friends to meet me out here. Do you want to come?"

"I should probably head back for the night. I still have to get work done this week." Penelope tried to put the spin of disappointment in her voice.

"It's already late. You are getting no work done tonight. Just come for a little while. Your guy will probably be there. Did he not tell you about it?" Renee questioned.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, he did. But I told him no."

"You said no? After spending so much time in there with him, you said no?" Renee was astonished. "By the way, I haven't gotten any details from you yet, so you are going to have to come to the party with me anyway just to tell me."

Penelope tried to hold back her giggle. She was trying her hardest to get it out of her mind so she wouldn't actually melt into a puddle. "Uh well I…"

"No, you can't get out of it. Where are you staying anyway?"

Penelope froze momentarily. She had to tell the woman the truth. It was part of the cover. If she lied about where she stayed, it would only raise questions, but she knew any excuse she'd have for not attending would be gone. She muttered the name of the hotel, hoping Renee was too drunk and too high on life to realize.

"Oh, that's the same hotel. Well not really, but it's next door. They share a front desk service." She had the attitude of a teenager as she informed Penelope, "You are definitely coming with because, if you really don't enjoy yourself, then all you have to do is walk to your room." She pulled out her phone, sending out a text.

Penelope did enjoy this woman's tenacity. "Okay, one drink," she muttered.

"Yay!" Renee cheered. "My friends are finishing up at the bar. We can all share a cab. Now, tell me all about it before they get here."

Penelope gave her a watered down version of what happened. She could tell Renee wasn't buying it when she continued to question why she was gone for so long if her activities were so tame. So Penelope admitted to getting lost in making out. Renee, satisfied with that explanation, nodded and continued to babble until her equally drunk and fun friends showed up. They hugged Penelope as if she were an old friend and hopped in a cab together to get to the hotel for the party.

She learned the other two girls' names were Grace and Olivia. When they found out she had been in the private room with the dancer they knew as Jay, they began to tell her how jealous they were of her. "You got to touch his abs? Oh my God, he's new so I haven't seen him dance before, but, when he came out tonight, I was picking my jaw off the floor," Olivia said as she was pulling her lip gloss out of her bag.

"I could've sworn I'd seen him before, but it must've been years ago when I came to visit my cousin," Grace offered. "But, hot damn, you kissed him? I saw his lips. How was that?"

Penelope was bright red, although she knew that these women were just very interested in Jay. To her, she had been kissing Luke, a man she'd had a crush on for a long time. "Uh it was-uh-it was-well, it was really really good." She turned even more red as she bit her lip. She was sure that if he was really a stranger and she had kissed him, she would be just as amazed by the kiss, but it would also be easier to say it straightforwardly. She decided she should take advantage of her ability to say it outloud since she wasn't going to be able to say it to anyone else, "Can I say something very-uh - weird?"

Renee let out a howl. "Please, that's my favorite kind of thing to say."

Penelope scrutinized the three women in the back of the van with her. "Uh well, it was sort of the best kiss I ever had." She watched the women take in the information with interest, none of them commenting right away. "That's not good, right? Since I-he was just a stripper I met. I should probably have tall tales about rowdy nights in college or romantic candlelit dinners?"

"Actually, no, I kind of get it. The way he looked at you, it wasn't like a-well a stripper looking at a stack of cash coming his way. It was like he was intrigued by you," Renee suggested. "Sometimes you just meet somebody, and there's this inexplicable chemistry. He must be one of those guys for you. Which is why it's a good thing you're coming to this party because you only meet the insane chemistry people a few times in your life, if you're lucky, and then, if you're very very lucky, you might even get to keep them," she said the last part almost wistfully.

"Have you ever been in love, Elsa?" Olivia questioned softly. "Just wondering, because I didn't have my best kiss until I was in love. It was - something," she laughed. "But that night I finally knew what it was like to be kissed." She shrugged but offered up a kind smile.

Penelope's mind started racing as she thought about this woman's words. She returned her smile with a soft one of her own. "I thought I had been, but maybe I was wrong about that, and I'm just figuring that out now." She looked to the other women apprehensively. "Oh, that sounds tragic."

"Not really, I don't think a lot of people have been in real love until it just sneaks up on them one day. Some of us even have to think we're in love for years before we figure out the truth. Now that's tragic." Renee took the lip gloss Grace offered to her. "Just remember when you do finally feel it, don't let it go for anything."

Penelope let their words roll around in her head. She realized she didn't hear the rest of the conversation until she came out of her daze when the van door of the cab opened. "Oh, here, ladies. Cab fare is on me." She shooed them out as she put money for the fare and a very large tip in the cab driver's hand.

"Thanks, Elsa," Grace said as she grabbed Penelope's hand and started walking with her towards the courtyard.

"You know where you're going?" She questioned the women in front of her, even though she knew they were headed in the right direction. She wasn't sure why they did.

"Dave told me to head to the courtyard in between the hotels, and we wouldn't be able to miss the party," Renee hollered back towards her.

They were ambling slowly, their heels and the drinks they'd consumed making it hard to keep a steady pace. As they rounded the corner of the hotel, Penelope saw that the party was already in full swing, much like the night before. Her new-found friends waded right into the crowd, making their way towards the open door of the hotel room. Penelope was smiling as she held onto one of their hands as they tried to stay together. She spotted Emily and JJ standing to the side with a woman she recognized from the other day. Well, that made sense. She was there with Ruiz who wasn't too far from her team members. She saw Emily's eyes flash with a hint of concern before going back to being a party girl.

"Ladies, ladies, what can I get you?" It was the man she'd come to know as Matty.

The others gave him their requests, but Penelope pulled out her phone quickly. "Oh, excuse me a second, ladies. I have to answer a work email."

"It's like two in the morning," Grace said disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I know. It's from our European office," she rolled her eyes, acting like it was the biggest of burdens. "It'll just take a sec." She typed out a quick text to Emily.

 **I'm just playing a role here. The girls knew my hotel was near the party. I'll make an excuse as soon as they're occupied**.

Emily's response was quick.

 **Stay safe. Be gone within the hour. I'll have Simmons come down so there's an extra set of eyes on you. Alert Alvez if you can.**

 **Will do, Boss Lady.**

Penelope nodded in her direction, before stepping back towards the ladies that were right in front of Luke's hotel room door. Renee had found Dave already and was currently draped under his arm as he chatted with the group in front of him.

Penelope tried to not be awkward as she approached the group right in front of the door. She didn't know how to cut into the conversation or budge into the circle of people. Then she thankfully heard Luke's voice coming from just inside the room. "Well, you know I like big tits, Carlo. You saw hers, right? It's cash for cake if there ever was."

Her eyes widened as she heard his words. She hated hearing him talk like that, but she was almost pissed off that he was probably talking about her. She decided that she had a role to play too, and she was going to do so while also alerting him to her presence as instructed. "I'm sorry, is your friend talking about me?" she said loudly and gave Dave a flirty smile while putting her hand on her hip.

She heard a quick shuffle, and then she saw Luke's face appear in the doorway. Carlo was right behind him with a huge beam on his face, waiting to see how his friend, Jay, explained that one. His eyes zeroed in on her. There was almost anger in them, but he recovered quickly. "So what if I was?" He put an arm up on the doorway and brought what she assumed was really just water in a beer bottle to his lips.

"I don't know, honey. You tell me." She may not know how to be undercover, but she knew how to flirt.

Renee bit her tongue before speaking up. "You two want to finish what you started?"

Luke brought his arm behind Carlo and pushed him out of the room as he leered at Penelope, giving her the option to walk into the room. She did, and she heard all three women as well as the two other men give various whistles and woos.

Luke shut the door behind him. "What are you-"

Penelope cut off his angry question and quickly held her phone up to his face with the picture she had taken in the bathroom. "Look."

"What is-" He grabbed the phone in his hand and scrutinized the picture. "This is eerily similar to the tattoos."

"Yes, I knew it was familiar, but that's it. It must be from the same artist or person or-"

"Did you check it to see if there was any info on the back of it?"

"Yeah, sure, Alvez. I picked up the picture from the wall while my new best friend was describing your best friend's penis shape." She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

He scoffed too. "Alright, alright. Send this to the team, and tell them where you found it so they know."

"Well yeah, of course." She snatched her phone back, but in truth she hadn't done that yet.

"Why haven't JJ or Prentiss made the connection?"

"It was in the ladies bathroom for the private rooms. They must not have the same decor in the main ones."

"Stacy is the one that takes care of most of the decorating. She would at least know where it came from, whether or not she knows anything else," Luke informed her. They heard the door opening, and their eyes went wide. He moved forward immediately to wrap his arms around her. Her arms came up to wrap around his neck. They turned only their heads towards the door, as if they had been annoyingly interrupted.

"Hey man, if you're gonna take the bed, at least give us the alcohol out here." Dave picked up the box of beer and liquor bottles, handing them off to Carlo and Renee, before giving the two people in the room a thumbs up. The man smirked as he hit the light switch, which left them in the low light of the floor lamp as he shut the door behind him.

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Thanks for keeping up with this story or any others of mine. Thanks also for all favs/follows/reviews. Love it all.

Thanks to BookDragon2013 for loving this story concept as much as me.


	12. Chapter 12

I will finally be updating Fog either tomorrow or the next day. As well as the next chapter of Summer.

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Luke pulled away from her and immediately put the chain on the door. He turned back to her with his original question. "What are you doing?" He was upset. She shouldn't be putting herself in any danger especially with Ruiz there.

"Nice to see you too," she barked. "I was just hanging out with my friends. I couldn't just leave them. They think that I'm a drunk girl who enjoyed getting groped by you!" She was exasperated.

"They're not actually your friends, _Elsa_ ," he said her fake name with a sneer.

"You think I don't know that? I know that okay? But you're playing a part, and so am I." She took a couple steps towards him.

He smiled at her as he took a step towards her too, loving when she gave him that angry look she tended to save just for him. He brought his face close to hers. "Not everything was pretend," he said to her in a low voice.

She was still mad, but she huffed, trying to maintain her composure at his words. She didn't know exactly what he was referring to - their time earlier or maybe his comments about breasts. "You know, can you at least try not to say 'tits' please?"

He chuckled inaudibly. "I'll try." He came closer to her.

Her eyes travelled his face that was just inches from hers. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Well, I can't let you leave yet. You'll ruin my reputation. I certainly can't let you leave if you still look put together." He watched her lips, leaving his parted as he waited for her reaction. "Seems we're in a predicament again."

"We-well, I still don't think I'm that put together from earlier, my blush is still-and-and I-"

He caught her lips with his, causing her words to halt. Without thought, she brought her arms around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist. He brought his tongue out to play immediately, picking up from where they left off earlier rather than start anew. After a couple of moments, he pulled back. "So, uh, bed would make this more comfortable." His voice was almost a whisper. He didn't want to startle her into reasonable thought with his real voice.

She was biting her bottom lip that she could already feel was puffy again from the workout it was just having. "Uh sure, whatever your reputation needs," she said back to him as low as he had spoken to her.

He nodded, pushing her back towards the bed but disengaging so he could shut the lamp and audio off. Even though he knew the one person who would be listening was here, he also knew that if the case was ever audited some grunt FBI worker would have to listen to whatever might take place. He swiftly made his way back to her before she was alone long enough to see through his flimsy excuse for trying to kiss her.

She was perched on the edge of the bed not really paying attention. Her brain short circuited again after the renewed kiss. "Here?" she asked as her eyes peered up at him from her position.

"Anywhere," he breathed, before pushing her so her back hit the mattress.

He recaptured her lips, moaning into her mouth as he felt her tongue immediately enter his. He brought his hands to her side, pushing her up the mattress so that their legs were on it, her heels falling off as her feet flexed. He courageously kept his hands on her waist just near her breasts. He could feel the wire of her bra at the tips of his fingers. His erection coming back in full force, remembering that he knew exactly what color her bra was underneath. He was trying to keep his pelvis up so it wouldn't be obvious exactly how much he was enjoying this as Luke and not as Jay.

She almost wanted to whine. Her hands were on his chest, but he very annoyingly had a shirt on this time. She wanted him closer; he seemed much further away than he did earlier. As she wrapped her leg behind his and pulled him to her, she felt his erection against her center. She let out a tiny moan as she felt the connection; she tried to swallow it down. She stiffened, wondering what he would think of her enjoying herself and knowing that was ridiculous. He was obviously enjoying this as much as she was. But as he pulled his lips away, she was prepared for him to say something about not having to pretend that much. "Are you hot again?" was the only question he asked.

She stared at his pink lips as she attempted to get words out of her mouth. "Hmm hmm," was her response. He sat back on his heels, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it to the side before bringing his hands to her back. She supported herself on her elbows, and he undid the zipper down to her butt, pulling her dress forward and then down her arms leaving it bunched up around her belly. The only thing covering her top half was the bra he was now beginning to hate for being in his way. He reached down pulling the dress up slightly, undoing the strap that his fingers had put together just an hour ago, and pulled the gun off of her, setting it on the nightstand.

"If you get any hotter, just let me know." He caught her lips with his again, kissing her with more force, as he could feel her skin against his now. She ran her hands up to feel his flexing bicep, as he hovered over her. She was pretty sure she whined. Once again she was ready for some final pin to drop, getting in trouble for not holding back as she should've been. Instead he brought his groin closer to her and moved slightly as he tried to get her to make that sound again, any sound again.

She pushed on his chest. He was ready for her to tell him that he didn't need to go this far for a case, but instead she asked, "Do you have anymore ice?" She knew he did. She watched Dave pull the liquor bottles from the open cooler located right next to the bed. She watched his eyes darken before he reached over and picked up an empty cup scooping a few ice cubes into it before returning to the spot he'd just vacated. He brought the cup to his lips using his tongue to get a piece of ice into his mouth. He brought his mouth down to her chest doing something similar to what he had done before. She squirmed, her legs opening wider since the bed left her more space than the loveseat had, giving him a chance to settle nicely in between her legs.

As the ice melted, he brought his head back, scanning her eyes for the first time since they'd been arguing. He didn't want this to feel too real by having the intimate act of actually looking at each other break the world they had created where they both needed to be doing this for the job, but he needed to gauge where she was at. "How hot are you?" His eyelids were heavy as he watched her eyes.

She swallowed, trying to control her body but feeling the sensation of tingling from the excitement crawling up her spine. "Really, really, really hot." She was waiting for him to laugh or maybe even walk over and turn up the air conditioner they could both hear buzzing in the corner, but instead she heard a growl. He grabbed a couple pieces of ice, setting them in the middle of her chest, letting the cup fall onto the bed. He used both hands to run his fingertips up her sides, watching her shiver from the minimal contact to her skin.

He took a deep breath as he decided to do the most audacious thing he'd done so far and brought his palms up to the tops of her breasts. Then he used his lips to move the ice cubes in between the valleys of her breasts. He lightly used his fingertips to pull the cups slowly down, moving the ice back and forth between both of her breasts. Touching the skin as it was revealed, peeling the fabric back centimeter by centimeter, waiting for her to object. When all he felt was one of her hands come up to the back of his head grasping his hair, he simultaneously peeled the cups all the way down below her nipples and hooked them below the heavy undersides of her breasts as he brought the ice towards her right nipple.

Her breath caught in her throat as she tried not to moan too loudly, but she knew she was going to lose that battle eventually. Her fingernails dug into the back of his head trying to get the energy that was currently radiating through her body out in one way or another. He moved his tongue to her left breast, doing the same thing, making both of her nipples hard points. They felt both numbly cold and on fire at the same time. She was biting her lip as hard as she could, and her other hand had a fistful of the bedspread attempting to control herself. Which she was doing until the ice melted, and she finally felt his lips lightly moving over the hardened points. The pulse in her vagina had been steadily accelerating. She was sure her underwear were soaked a long time ago, but her clit felt like it was vibrating. She let out a guttural moan, no longer able to hold it in, and all of the energy she had been keeping to herself came out, as she lost any will to inhibit herself from enjoying his lips on her skin.

When he'd heard her moan, he sucked the nipple he was currently enjoying into his mouth. He wanted to feel her with his own hands, and he finally let his palms settle on her breasts fully holding her right one in his hand and feeling the weight of it as he bounced it lightly. His other hand held her left breast to his mouth as he continued to suck on it. She felt him start to move his erection over her. The dress still pooled in her lap, she brought one hand down to pull the dress up so it was above her hips. He unzipped his pants leaving them open like they were before. As soon as it was just their underwear in between them, he brought his hand back to its original task as he started to roll his hips against her heated center. He could feel the heat and the wetness from her, humming a moan into her chest as he moved.

She'd forgotten what she had been quiet for, letting moans escape her lips as she was lost in the feeling of his hands and mouth on her body. Her mind started picturing how he moved earlier in his dance routine, his body rolling and grinding. The thought of the body she had seen earlier now being in her grasp and feeling his weight on her made her mind want to cave in on itself, but then she remembered this was Luke. Her sort of friend, her teammate, and part of her family now. Luke's lips and hands and body were on her just like she'd always wanted them to be, and that was the thought that sent her into bliss, shouting, squirming, and moaning. Her breath coming out as if she'd just run a marathon, her nails digging further into his head, and the other hand coming to his back and making small marks with her nails.

When he felt the rush of liquid from her through his own underwear, he sped up his pulsing. Letting himself place tiny bites on her breasts, humming his pleasure at having finally seen them, touching them, and kissing them. His thoughts about the girl who made him care when he hadn't meant to, the one he thought about too often, the one too stubborn to give him a shot just came on herself because they'd both kept up this front of being dedicated to the job. Her nails digging into his back made him moan again, causing him to come up to assault her lips once more as his lower body created the friction he needed. He came as he kissed and bit her lips feeling her return the kiss with force.

As his body climbed down from the high it had achieved, he continued kissing her breathless. She held onto him, her hands travelling from his arms, to chest, to back, wanting to feel everywhere all at once.

Her mind wandered to everything she hadn't touched yet, making her remember why she'd been holding back in the first place. This was Luke, no one else, and she couldn't justify sleeping with someone for work. What they'd already done was going beyond the call of duty, but her mind told her that they were both making the best of the situation they were in, having some fun because they were two adults and they could. And when they got back to their real work life, they would forget this, or she would attempt to forget this, but instead relive it every night in the privacy of her own mind. She grasped his upper arms, holding onto him as she kissed him back, hoping that somehow the actions of her hands actually would keep him close.

Luke had continued to kiss her mostly because he wanted to, mostly because he was hoping they would never stop kissing, but also because he was desperately hoping that she wouldn't think too much. If her mind didn't have time to analyze it, then she couldn't disparage it. If they kept kissing, she couldn't push him off or tell him it was just for the job. She couldn't tell him that it was a mistake, and he would never see the anger or regret etched on her face.

There was a loud thud. Both of them let their lips part as they glared at the door. Luke chanced a look at Penelope, hoping the moment wasn't broken, before calling out. "Yo, bro, kinda busy in here. What is it?"

"Just letting you know that we're leaving. I think there's only a couple people left at the pool, but I didn't want to leave this chair out here. I think it's yours."

"Okay, thanks, Matty. I'll get it in a sec," Luke called out to the door. He sighed before turning to Penelope, knowing that there was no way to convince her to stay now, not if the party was over. He didn't even have the facade of keeping up appearances to hide behind. He hadn't actually moved away from her. He'd only turned his head, so, when he turned back, his face was just as close to hers as it was before. He examined her lips again before letting his eyes fall on her face to gauge what her reaction was going to be. He found himself holding his breath, more scared of this moment than of everything he'd ever been through in the Army, FBI, or from his mother.

"Uh-I guess that means I should-I should..." She realized her nipples were very much still on display, and she let her hands leave his skin reluctantly to come up to cover them trying to maintain some weird form of professionalism now that the veil of undercover work had been lifted yet again. "I should go. They're all probably waiting for me to debrief them, and Em said to get back in an hour, and... Oh God! What time is it? When - how long - I need to-" She started to wiggle her hips to show that she needed to get up.

Instead of moving back like she expected him to do, Luke moved up her body, keeping her in place and looking directly into her eyes, "Or you could stay."

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Thank you for all the reviews, favs, and follows. Always a pick me up when things in rl are in the drain.


	13. Chapter 13

The final chapter of Signals will be out on Sunday. Another update of this story will be up on Tuesday. Summer updates will be done in between. All other stories should have an update within the next week or two.

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Penelope's breath hitched as she heard the invitation. She wanted to believe that he wanted her, and that it had nothing to do with the fact that he couldn't actually sleep with any of the girls throwing themselves at him. He was too noble for that. If he was lying about who he was, he would know being with them would be a scam, and he wasn't that kind of guy. She knew who he actually was, and that meant that right now she was the best option for him. And he must know that she was more than a willing participant. She wanted nothing more than to say yes and to stay the whole night, to tear his clothes off, to do everything to him she'd ever thought about. She wanted to. She wanted to way before this night, but there was only so much that she could take. Already she was going to have to see him everyday at the office, knowing that his lips had been on her chest, knowing that he had seen so much of her and that he'd known exactly what she sounded like when she came. "I, uh - I have to get back. You're, uh, off the clock now."

He nodded, casting his eyes down so that she wouldn't see the very real disappointment written on his features. He flipped over, laying next to her, letting her sit and pull her dress up. It was incredibly intriguing watching her attempt to cover her breasts with her hands while simultaneously attempting to pull her clothes over her body. The gentleman in him wanted to help, but the everything else in him had no intention of helping her put clothes on, when his entire being wanted to take them all off her. He watched with interest as her small hands barely covered the large mounds, and her frustration mounted with trying to bring her bra back into place since it had gone very askew. "Are you going to just stare, or are you going to help me?" She glared at him, as he blatantly watched her.

"It does not seem in my best interest to do so," he teased her.

"This is not the time for your stupid jokes or to practice what you're going to say to all the women you're planning to ask out when this is all over, okay? This is the time to help your fellow FBI employee get her fucking clothes on, so she can get back to work. So can this not be about you right now?" If she weren't so frustrated and mad, she would have probably cried.

She stopped trying to fix her clothes but kept her arms crossed over her chest, covering as much of herself as she could. He closed his eyes, taking a breath to steady himself. He could get mad and tell her how wrong she was, but she was too stubborn to listen to him when she got in one of her moods. As soon as she decided something, she stuck to it for as long as she could. He sat up next to her but reached behind her to help unravel the bra strap that had curled in on itself when it came off of her shoulders. Once he released the tension from it, he slid his finger under the small strap bringing it slowly up her shoulder and putting it in place. He kissed the spot softly before doing the same to the other side. As he left a parting kiss on that shoulder, she quickly drew a breath she'd been holding since he placed the first one. There was no excuse for it. Even under the very flimsy pretense they had both engaged in this behavior under, there was none right now, and she couldn't get her mind to wrap around the sweetness of his actions and reconcile it with the sexual behavior he'd taken part in with her.

"Lean forward," Luke whispered. He gripped the fabric of the dress that was bunched around her lower back, pulling it slowly up until the sleeves were visible again. She'd straightened the cups of her bra as he'd started in on the back of the dress. His hand brought the fabric up, but he let his fingers slowly push on her skin and linger as he did so. He regretted not just telling the woman how he felt, or not calling her on her shit, or the loss he felt every time he went to bed alone, wishing he'd been courageous enough to ask her out, despite not knowing how serious she was about hating him. Right now, she was too angry, but she'd participated in the activities tonight, and, even if they could write off a few kisses and touches for the sake of the general public, everything beyond that was them. Elsa was not moaning and coming underneath him, and Jay was not licking her nipples until they were hard points. That was Luke and Penelope. Maybe he'd attempted to get her to stay in the safe bubble they'd created, but they had to consent. She may have been caught up in the moment, maybe she even thought his current position was hot, but he wanted more than just her body, even if he wanted that too.

After he'd brought the dress up, she put her arms through. He zipped the dress, slowly kissing her spine all the way up before letting the zipper follow. Once it was at the top, only the broken clasp undone, he let his fingers span her back before gathering her hair and spreading it down to cover it. "Thank you," she whispered her gratitude to him not sure exactly what she was thanking him for, the fashion aid or the sweet gestures that made her want to stay and do whatever he asked of her. She reached down to grab her heels, gently placing them on her feet. "I really need to get back up there before we have four FBI agents kicking in the door."

"It's only been a little over an hour, and I'm sure they saw you come in here with me alone. They know you're okay." His voice was smaller than she'd ever heard it before.

"You're right. They know you'd have been concerned about me being out there and kept me here until it was safe," she agreed in just as low of a voice. He was still sitting next to her, his upper body slightly behind hers. She turned her head minutely but kept her eyes on the mattress.

"Penelope, I want to talk about this." He was scrutinizing the side of her face as he spoke.

Penelope didn't know what to say. She didn't want to hear him say that he had fun. She didn't want to hear him say he was sorry for anything. It would be safer to not talk, so she could walk away with a decent memory. "It's okay. I'm not asking to."

"No. But I am."

"Okay, we can talk about it when this is all over. I need to get back." She didn't want to ruin this memory yet. Even if she could only hold onto it for a little while, she was going to. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod his acceptance. She got up and walked to the bathroom. She wanted to make sure she was in place, despite their goal being the opposite. If she really had hooked up with a stranger, she would have made sure she appeared manageable before heading out in public. She ran her fingers under her eyes to make sure the eyeliner wasn't smudged and straightened the dress one last time before deciding she appeared like she'd been out partying, but she didn't seem like she'd just come from dry humping like a horny teenager.

She shut off the bathroom light to find Luke bringing the chair in from outside. She grabbed her purse, not chancing a glance at him in the dim light of the lamp he'd switched on, and walked to the door, opening it before hearing his voice. "Please tell me that I won't hear any nicknames about coming in my pants." There was a smile in his voice. "I'm not sure I can take it."

She laughed even though she had every intention of walking out solemnly. Her hand was still on the door, and she didn't turn to look at him. "No worries, I don't really have the upper hand on that one." She left, shutting the door behind her and leaving a huge grin on the face of the man who'd she'd very gladly let take away her upper hand any time he wanted.

….

Penelope strolled across the courtyard alone. Still hearing and seeing a few lively people around the place, even around four in the morning, it wasn't surprising. She checked her phone, seeing a message from Emily that she should text her when she got back to her room from Luke's. Seeing the text, she was sure she could've stayed a little longer. They weren't worried about her. She was with one of them after all. She let herself into her room and immediately went to shower. She wanted to keep his scent on her. She wanted to keep the tingly feelings he'd created all over her skin, but there were profilers about, and the quicker she got herself in check, the better. She was quick about it and sent the text to Emily as she stepped out to dry herself. She'd left the door cracked, so that they could come in while she was occupied. Minutes later she heard a door opening from the bathroom, knowing it was them coming to check on her. She'd purposely brought clothes in with her to change, anticipating them descending on her as soon as they could.

She exited the bathroom, finding the four of them discussing the night. All of them in shorts and shirts now, none of them going to bed in anything more in this heat. "What's up crime fighters?" she asked as she pulled her wet hair back out of her face. "Did everyone see the picture I took?"

"We did. I heard Alvez telling you that Stacy would know where it came from," Derek informed her. Penelope casually set her towel down as she tapped at her keyboard a couple of times, completely ignoring Derek.

"She does seem to have a fierce loyalty to Ruiz. She might be a part of the drug smuggling," Emily suggested.

"She's not exactly a costume maker. She orders and organizes the outfits, but she doesn't make them. She does design them, as well as decorating the bars and clubs he owns," JJ said.

"So it's entirely possible she uses the ordering of goods and materials as a cover for bringing the drugs in," Matt suggested.

"That would make sense. It would be a good cover," JJ spoke.

"Why would there never have been a connection before?" Matt asked.

"Take a look at Luke's reports. Stacy hardly ever shows up. She was never around except to hand out costumes. She works all the clubs fairly equally. They sent him to be near the dancers and managers and also Ruiz, but not her. She's barely mentioned. She wouldn't have been part of his assignment," Derek explained.

"Okay, what time does Alvez check in?" Emily asked.

"Since there was a party again, probably not until noon," Penelope informed her.

Emily turned to Penelope. "If he calls before then, set up another time for us to talk. Let's get some sleep and then dissect this tomorrow."

Penelope nodded at them. Emily and Simmons both left through their respective doors. Derek came up behind her and whispered in her ear. "I need to talk to you." She turned to him pretending to wonder what about. He stepped back seeing that JJ was still there. "It's okay. It can wait until tomorrow. Goodnight, ladies."

As soon as the door shut, JJ curled her legs underneath her on the bed, staring at Penelope until she spoke. "What JJ?"

"So… did anything interesting happen?" she questioned in a curious tone with a smile on her face.

Penelope tensed up, wondering what gave her away and wondering if the others could see it too but were too nice to call her out. "Like what, JJ?"

"I don't know. I'm just asking." She waved a hand dismissively.

Penelope knew she had to say something. "I watched Luke's performances if that's what you're asking. Don't worry I had his permission. We spoke about it being more realistic." JJ nodded at her but didn't say anything, wanting her to continue. "What? What else do you want?"

"You were over there for awhile tonight…" JJ nudged.

"Yes, I was. The ladies I met and the guys that were there, obviously wanted to know why we hadn't hooked up if we were so into each other. It made sense to excuse ourselves, that way we didn't have to keep up the charm, and I would be safe just like all of you wanted." Penelope was attempting to keep her cool, unsure if JJ could see through her or not.

"That's all? You didn't, maybe, do something that warranted you taking a shower right when you came in?" JJ was smiling as she asked.

"Uh, you know, we were all out at a strip club, and there was-there were-" She paused to put her hand to her forehead, before sighing and looking back to the friend she loved so dearly, but not so much at that moment. "JJ, there's nothing I need to tell you about, okay? I swear." To her, that was the truth. There were plenty of things she could share but nothing she felt okay about divulging. As much as she'd love to dissect the entire night with her friend like she would if it were anybody else, she couldn't bring herself to do so when she hadn't figured it out for herself. Furthermore, it was partially Luke's story to tell.

JJ saw the seriousness in Penelope's face. She wasn't convinced nothing at all happened. She was at least hoping that the private time her two team members were forced to spend together tonight at least yielded a conversation. That one or both of them told the other they were happy to spend time together, or maybe they would even have to admit their attraction to each other because of what the night had entailed. She didn't want to push and by the looks of things, it couldn't have gone too well because Penelope wasn't walking on any sort of cloud. "Okay, well if you want to talk about anything, just let me know." She walked to the door. "Goodnight, Garcia."

After she left, Penelope breathed a sigh of relief. She made her final preparations for bed before slipping into a restless sleep, wondering what she would've been doing right now if she had accepted Luke's invitation.

* * *

 _I know._ Not the smut you expected, but we all know I like to play around first. We'll get there.

Thank you for all the favs, follows, reviews and PM's. My life is hectic right now so I may not always have time to get back to you but please be aware that when I know you all are enjoying my writing, it definitely makes it easier to carve out some time to get these updates out.

Thanks BookDragon2013 for reading this through for me.


	14. Chapter 14

More updates to everything coming soon, including this story.

I moved today... I fucked up my back and shoulder again. Good times. But, hey, I moved!

Thanks for all the support you all have been so awesome!

* * *

Luke woke up that morning with at least a little bit of hope and a smile on his face. But he was frustrated though. So in between his happy jaunt towards the coffee shop, he would crease his brow in contemplation. Apparently a little too much, as he discovered when Matty sat down. "Geesh, Jay. for someone who got laid less than eight hours ago, you're seriously grumpy." Matty sat down with his own coffee.

Luke had gotten there early and was almost done with his. "Nah man, just tired. Stayed up too late. But was definitely worth it." He raised his eyebrows at Matty, making the man laugh.

"Yeah alright, alright. Whatever you say, _Cash for Cake_. I'm surprised you even bothered. I remember you being all," he paused for emphasis, "reserved. You were a party animal until it came time to really take one of them home."

"Yeah, yeah. It's weird, dude. They are paying for our services. They might not be paying for everything, but it's a fine line, and I don't like thinking of myself in that category. Then again, sometimes you just can't hold back." He chuckled.

"True. I guess as the bartender I never have to feel quite the same way you do. But being around you all does have its perks. Went home with one of the girls your girl was with." Matty shrugged. "I asked her if she wanted to come for coffee, but she said she had to meet up with her friends. We exchanged numbers." He shrugged again.

"Since when do you exchange numbers? You may not like being a player, but you also don't do commitment." Luke knew Matty was one of the better in the bunch, but that didn't mean he was calm.

"Yeah, I don't know. It's sort of like how long can we do this for? Party every night? We've got younger dancers and bartenders that come in, and… it just reminds me that I'm not twenty-five anymore. I can at least try for a girlfriend, right? Most of the guys get a girlfriend eventually."

Luke tipped his head. "Not wrong, bro. Some were even married. Like Jonny." Luke said the name with a hint of sadness partially because it was sad and partially to spur Matty on.

"Yeah, true. But even he… Well, we don't know that he was messing around on her."

"Wait, what? Jonny wasn't like that." Luke was truly sure of that.

"Yeah, but we tried to give his wife his last night's wages. It was a few grand, but she refused. She said that she didn't need a cheater's money. Don't get me wrong, she was still bawling her eyes out and all. I know she was sad, but I think she refused on principal since it came from the club." Matty shrugged.

"Why would that matter?"

"Well, supposedly he was cheating with Stacy. I don't know, bro. I never saw it. I never really saw him alone with her."

"I didn't either. She wasn't around much except when we were getting costumes for a new routine." Luke spoke contemplatively as he truly tried to find the answer.

"Yeah, I wish there was something I could say to her. I know it's been a few years, but I just don't think that his wife and kid should think less of him. I doubt he was cheating. She apparently found some phone calls and inappropriate texts. But it was never clear what it was. I was thinking maybe Stacy was after him. Doubt Jonny flirted back, but it's easy to misinterpret."

"Yeah, yeah. Guess it is. Did Ruiz keep that money for her somewhere?" Luke watched Matty nod as he sipped his coffee, "I knew him pretty well. I know I left right after he died, but I had spent a little time with her. Maybe if I go talk to her sometime and offer the money again?"

"Possible. I ran into her once. She seemed to have calmed a lot. She was real nice and all. But I also didn't bring up much except that I missed him."

"Can't hurt, right?" Luke nodded at Matty and changed the conversation.

….

At a quarter to noon, Penelope heard a knock on her door. She had set her alarm for half past eleven on purpose so she could maximize her sleep but be up in enough time for the noon check in. She slipped into a flowy dress and did her makeup, so she appeared like she'd been awake for more than ten minutes. Since she'd taken a shower right before bed, she didn't need to take another only six hours later.

She turned the knob, letting Emily push the door open. Penelope took a seat at her desk. Emily strolled through the room and knocked on the other door to alert the guys that they were there.

Penelope relayed her story to them in more detail about keeping up appearances with Renee and her friends, and that there wasn't much to report as she had little contact with anyone besides Luke and the women she met. She listened to them recount their nights and anything they heard that could've been something.

A half hour later, they were still waiting for Luke to check in. Emily checked the time. "Maybe he wasn't planning to check in until after work since it was such a late night last night."

"I can check the video for this morning. I hadn't bothered since I figured nothing much happened since I left at four." Penelope started typing, having her system pick out the spots where there was activity. As they waited for the program to work, they heard the telling buzz of Luke checking in.

Penelope activated the speaker. Emily spoke immediately. "Alvez, you think Stacy could know more than we had thought?"

"I went for coffee with Matty this morning. He said they tried to give Jonny's widow his last night's wages, but that she refused. She told them that she didn't need a cheater's money. Apparently she caught some communication between him and Stacy that was not on the up and up, but the thing is, Matty said he'd never seen Stacy with him. I asked him if he thought he actually cheated with her. He said it was unlikely. Jon was too honest, and that's what I knew of him too."

"Okay, so maybe Jonny was really dealing drugs, and his wife just interpreted the communications as an affair," Derek surmised.

They heard Luke make an unsure noise before he spoke. "I know that this looks bad, but I genuinely don't think he was part of anything - an affair or drugs. Look, I've gotten to know a lot of these guys, but Jonny's the only one I'd actually be friends with in real life. He was a good husband. He did the same thing as me when it came to the stage, which is to not take advantage of the situation. He was thoroughly loyal to his wife, and he wouldn't have gotten involved with drugs. I actually hate that his wife thinks otherwise."

"Okay so what could it have been then? Why would he have been talking to Stacy?" Prentiss asked.

"Well, now that we're looking at her, I remember one of the other vics, Craig. He did hang out with Stacy a lot, but he had a boyfriend that we had to clear as a suspect, so I assumed they were just friends. For obvious reasons. I was new and didn't know details about anyone yet. I didn't make a connection at the time," Luke informed.

The five people in the room together exchanged glances as they thought about it. "What are we missing?" Prentiss asked out loud.

"She couldn't have had relationships with all of those guys, plain and simple. There wasn't enough time, and also no one's discreet in our group. If that was happening, one of the guys would've said something," Luke addressed them.

Penelope turned to her computer again. "I'm going to run this picture I took through an image search. Maybe we'll find a source." Penelope typed, the others watched her, and Luke heard the clacking of the keyboard. Within moments she found a match. She read the article in front of her quickly. "Wow! Okay, you guys this is… this is Stacy's work. Look, that's her in the picture."

Matt was nearest to the screen, and he peeked over her shoulder. "That's definitely her about fifteen or twenty years ago. She won an art competition at school?" Matt informed them, but there was question in his words since he wasn't expecting that.

"She was apparently quite the artist. This was the district wide winner for pencil work that year. She was just a sophomore." Penelope recounted as she scanned through the article. "But that's a different last name, isn't it?" She turned to Matt who was still over her shoulder.

"Yes, and a different town than what it says in her background file. Why wouldn't they have this info?" Matt deferred to Emily for explanation.

"We don't have deep backgrounds on people that weren't full time employees at one of the clubs," she answered.

Luke chimed in. "Remember some of these files were accessed through the local cops. Some of whom we are assuming were paid off by Ruiz at some point. Even though we didn't directly request files through them, we did access their databases. If any of them were corrupt, they could have easily changed details according to what Ruiz requested."

"So did Matty say the correspondence was suggestive, or that it was just frequent and without explanation?" JJ inquired.

"Seemed that he believed it was suggestive, which makes sense. Jonny's wife is, well, normal. She wouldn't have been so angry, irrationally," Luke answered.

"So… Stacy… maybe Stacy has something to do with the drugs, not sure, but if you're saying Craig was gay and taken, and Jonny was taken and loyal… I know she can't be the killer based on forensics, but she's obviously choosing some of our victims and branding them for good measure. Maybe that's her way of winning. They're forever marked as hers." Penelope looked at the phone as she spoke, and then she turned to regard the rest of her teammates who seemed to be a bit shocked that she was the one to come to this hypothesis.

"Could be why I was never a target. My backstory, I was completely unattached. My mother was the only thing I ever spoke of. I never went on a date the whole time I was here so she never saw me with anyone. I can tell her that I have a girlfriend back home, and I just want to make some money to bring her out here. Perfect timing for her to try and steal me away and not be able to do it. The guys have already been joking that I must've left a girl back home."

"Luke," Prentiss' voice was serious. "If you do this, you are making yourself the target, and, if Stacy doesn't have anything to do with the drug smuggling, then we will not have made any headway with it."

"The drugs are a problem, but that was part of the original task I was assigned. We were sent to catch a murderer, and that's what we're doing. Besides if we get her, we can get Ruiz, and at the very least, if he's in jail for life, then maybe the DEA will be able to get his operation when they're vulnerable."

Prentiss nodded. "Okay. We're here, whatever you need."

"I'm off tonight, but I can go into the club and hang out. I'll talk to her then."

"Alright, sounds like a plan. We'll adjust our strategy, and I'll call Sero to let him know that we have a new goal." Emily nodded at the others.

Penelope was reaching for the button to end the call. "Garcia, can I talk to you?"

"What for, Hotpants?"

Luke moved to the chair and gave her a look through the camera. The other agents glanced at each other before they made a quick exit.

"What is it?" Penelope asked as she put the headset on, knowing the door in between hers and the other was thin.

"How are you?" Luke was apprehensive, but he didn't want to give her the time to get in her own head and shut him out.

"That's - I'm fine." She didn't want to make awkward conversation just so he could feel okay about what happened between them.

He sighed heavily. "Penelope, if you - if I did something that you didn't want - look, I just want to let you know that I have no regrets about last night, and that I enjoyed myself. I'm hoping you did too." He decided honest and simple was the best option.

She bit her lip as she thought. She didn't want to reveal too much, but she also didn't want Luke to think she didn't enjoy every moment of his skin touching hers. At the very least, he wanted to maintain their work relationship without incident, and he had a good time which she sort of knew since he did come on himself. "I-uh-I did have a good time last night. I don't regret anything. Best night of work I've ever had. Not one picture of blood or grody weird serial killer stuff so - uh, I mean, it was, I- It- I didn't mind it." Her words came out slow at the end as she tried to find the right words that weren't too revealing.

Luke's face was confused. He forgot momentarily that she could see him as he tilted his head trying to decipher her words. "Okay, I just wanted you to know that I'm glad you were here last night."

She was watching his face with curiosity, wishing it actually helped her read him rather than just turn her on. She was definitely happy that it wasn't a two way camera. "Umm, me too then, I guess."

"Right."

"Right."

"So I suppose I will check in after I get back from talking to Stacy."

"Okay, uh, bye then." She clicked the off button just as quick as every other time that she'd not known what else to say and flung the headset off. "Well then, I guess that could've been worse. He could've told you how big of a mistake it was. He had fun. Although, he did see your boobs, and boobs are always fun… Oh my God! He saw your boobs!" She dropped her head into her hands. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. How are you ever going to look at him again? Good job, Penelope." She straightened her shoulders, promptly putting those thoughts out of her mind, diving deep into denial as she began to work.

….

"Hey, Roger. What's up, Man?" Luke stuck his hand out and Roger clasped onto it in greeting.

"You came in on your day off? What for? That girl leave her glass slipper, and you're trying to find her?" Roger laughed as he sewed a button on the vest he was wearing that night.

"Yeah, ha ha, Rog. No, just bored. I was used to my ex being around on days off and now, back in Miami, nothing going on." Luke shrugged.

"Should've done better work, and maybe that girl would've given you her real number." Luke rolled his eyes playfully as Roger continued. "But seriously, find a new girlfriend then."

"Yeah yeah. I'll head over to the decent companion store right after I leave, bro." Luke took a seat. "Why are you sewing your own costume? Stacy run off with her own boyfriend?"

Roger scoffed. "That girl can't get a boyfriend. At least not one that knows fuck all about her. She's fucking nuts, dude. Hot though. But, no, she went with Ruiz to Tampa. He's opening another club there in a few months. She's helping with all that decorating shit."

"Seriously? Didn't think they'd both leave us unsupervised at the same time. Unless those two are…"

Roger laughed. "Chyeah right. He knows a bad transaction when he sees it."

"I guess that's true enough. Well, I wanted some entertainment, but watching you bedazzle shit ain't what I was searching for. Catch ya later, Man." Luke tapped Roger on the back and swiftly made his way back to his hotel room.

He hit the buzzer to call Penelope, but, after a full minute, there was no answer. He figured she could've gone downstairs to get a snack or stretch her legs. He decided to clean up what he hadn't done so already from the night before. It was ten minutes later, and he buzzed her again. He let it go for two full minutes, but there was still no response. He knew she wouldn't be gone for long because he told her he would call her when he got back from the club. Luke started pacing, wondering if he should be worried or not. She could've decided to take a long shower for all he knew. He sighed. He had texted her without a decent reason before. He'd been too high off of getting to kiss her for the first time. He pulled out his phone. He'd call her, and, if there was still no response - he didn't want to entertain that thought. If there was anyone he would break the rules for, it was her.

* * *

There is a Garvez chat group starting on Twitter, please let me know if you'd like to be part of it. I have been busy but I will get back to everyone soon.

Thanks for the reviews, favs, and follows.


	15. Chapter 15

**I kindly request that you please read this important note:**

Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that someone has plagiarized some of my work. I heard this happened but I have never seen it personally. I also had a lot of faith in the Garvez/Criminal Minds community, hoping that we were better that that. Let me say this, I believe FanFiction is a place where we write things that we _haven't_ seen before. We want to explore ideas that the shows didn't explore. Even if we all write a kidnapping story, it's still _an individual's_ personal take on it.

I never like to point this out, because I think we are all aware, but, I do not get paid for this. No one does. Betas, writers, no one. We do it for the love of a show, fandom, or the readers that we've come to love as well. I read somewhere that as an FF writer our only pay is the reviews. That is true. It's the knowledge that we reached someone, or made their day better. That's the only reward here. I never sought a reward for my Garvez work, they are, very unfortunately, not my characters. That being said, whether it is my original work _or_ my FanFiction, it is, _my work_. So with that out there, I will say this, if you have plagiarized my work, here, or on any other site, please take it down or change the parts you stole from me. I did not report it yet as I wanted to give the opportunity to have people do the right thing. However, yes, on any site, this or another, I will report you. I can easily prove my ideas are mine, as I have an online log that automatically saves when I come up with and write ideas. (For example, this story has been done since February, just not edited, but the entire document is in a log that is time and date stamped.)

I try to be fair and kind in all aspects of my life so let me also say this, if you love my work or ideas so much that you feel the need to copy me, I will try to extract the compliment deeply buried in that action. But, more than that, it probably means you love these characters. It probably means you have your own ideas and want to see them through, but you got frustrated and made the wrong choice. We're all adults, we all make mistakes, but you have a chance to correct it. Please, write and use only your own _ideas, sentences, titles, and words_ to create what you haven't seen from someone else yet. I guarantee you even if its not perfect, people will come, they will appreciate it, and most will know that even if it's not a perfect story, that it is a great attempt and that you will only get better as you continue on your own journey. Tell your own stories. Everybody. We need everyone's stories. If we only had mine, we would all be missing out on a lot. I'm certain that includes yours.

* * *

Penelope had been trying to nap, but she felt her phone buzz next to her. The vibration scared her awake. She realized it was Luke's undercover number. She squinted at it and then answered, "Are you supposed to be calling me?"

"No!" Luke sounded exasperated, but he sighed in relief before speaking again. "Are you not answering the audio anymore?"

"Wha- what?" Penelope scooted off the bed, her robe half off of one shoulder. "Oh shit, I forgot to take it off the headset, so it didn't buzz in the room. I'm so sorry. I was tired and took a nap, so I didn't even think about it."

Luke sighed again. "It's okay, just, you had me worried for a second."

"So much so that you're calling me when you're only supposed to use that number in emergencies?" There was a smile in her voice. "Although that text wasn't exactly an emergency either."

Luke cleared his throat. "Yeah, okay, Garcia. I… am clearly not a fan of all the rules."

"Really? I thought you liked the rules. Actually you know what? Scratch that. You do seem to tow the line, but it's usually for a good cause. Not sure you can explain all of your behavior though."

"You're not wrong."

Penelope cleared her throat this time. "So what is it?"

"I went into the club to talk to Stacy, but I was told she went to Tampa to help with the new club Ruiz is opening there."

"But I have an alert on her name at the airport."

"It's not that far. I'm sure they just drove."

"So what do we do?"

"We can't lose our ground here. Prentiss can ask Sero to send someone to keep an eye on her, but her next target would be here anyway. Ruiz doesn't have a business there yet, so it's not like she can have someone lined up. It just means we'll have to wait a couple days."

"Okay, okay, that's not bad."

"No, in fact we can probably use that time. We obviously need you to get the real background on her. The one that she or Ruiz or the cops hid. Maybe it will tell us why she decided that murder was a line of work she wanted to get into."

"True. Still, why would Ruiz kill someone for her… that's… well I guess it would be stupid to try and figure out logical reasons for murdering people in cold blood."

Luke scoffed. "Yeah, typically. We might profile them, but just because we can figure out what they're thinking doesn't make what they're thinking logical."

"This is true. Guess you're getting better at that profiling stuff, aren't you?" She silently chuckled.

"Yeah, thanks, Garcia. Can you tell the team about this? I'm going to try and call Stacy's cell just to set up for when she gets back in town. I'll buzz you afterwards."

"Can do."

As they hung up, she sent a group text to everyone to have them meet in her room. Within minutes, the four people were gathered around waiting for her to inform them. "Okay, so Luke went to talk to Stacy, but Stacy went with Ruiz to Tampa to get some things down for a club he's planning on opening there. They must've driven because I put an alert on her name at the airport. He said, if you could get Sero to have someone follow them so we knew when they were coming back, that would help. He's going to call Stacy to get the ball rolling as well."

"Alright, not a problem. And since our two main suspects are out of town, let's take the night slow. We're still hitting the town. You two go to the same club as the first night. They have the biggest office. It's likely Stacy spends the most time there. We're going to head to the sister club at the other end of town. Since Luke's not working tonight, we'll check it out over there, see if anyone seems like an easy target." They all nodded at Emily. "Garcia, we probably won't need anything and neither will Luke, so enjoy some time to yourself, but keep your cell on in case of emergencies."

Penelope gave her a salute as her and JJ walked out the front door.

"Baby Girl, how are you doing?" Derek sat on the edge of her bed. Matt nodded at him and returned to their room but left the door open for him.

"I'm fine. I napped. I don't think I'm very necessary here."

"You're very necessary everywhere. C'mon, Baby, you can't fool me. What happened with Alvez last night?"

"What do you mean?" She was straightening out her various pens and pencils, avoiding eye contact.

"What I mean _is_ , since you were out there last night, I was here. Before the audio switched off, I heard a little scuffle between you two, and it wasn't all professional. Then the audio was turned off." His eyebrows were high on his forehead, waiting for her explanation.

"Why did you have to be listening to the audio? It's not like we learn anything from that anyway." Penelope knew her cheeks probably looked like tomatoes, so she continued to carry on as if she were actually busy with something. Derek was going to wait her out, and she knew it, so after a few more moments of silence, she pulled herself together and turned to him. "We had to make things believable at the club. We kissed in front of the security. So, when I got to the party, we did the same thing for the sake of Dave and Matty and my new best friends too. No big deal."

Derek nodded. "It wasn't a big deal to you?" He genuinely wanted to know. He knew Penelope felt something, but he didn't know the whole situation, just what he'd seen in the last few days.

"Derek," she sighed. "Look, Luke's - he's a nice person, and we all know I think he's super pretty. I guess I can't hide that. Dumb profilers. But that doesn't mean anything, and last night was work. It's not like he took me on a date, so there's nothing for me to say." She gave him a vaguely honest answer, just like she'd given JJ. She was aware they could easily read her, but, since her answer was rooted in truth, they would see that she was being honest, even if it wasn't the whole truth.

Derek nodded. "Okay, Beautiful." He got up, put his hands on her shoulders and then kissed her head. "See you later. Try not to have too much fun with your night off." He shut the door behind him, and she watched it close.

As if on cue, the buzzer went off. "Hey, whatcha need?"

"Nothing. Is everyone off tonight?"

"No, they're still going out just to keep up the facade more or less."

"I called Stacy's phone, left her a message, and said I needed my costume fitted when she's back. Since my sort of ex girlfriend was going to come see me, I wanted to make sure I was in tip top shape. Hopefully that's enough to intrigue her."

"Yeah, you in danger, sounds great." Penelope's voice was annoyed.

"You're not worried about me, are you?"

"Of course I am, Gyrator. You're-you're part of this family, so I'm worried about your safety."

"Well, thank you."

"No worries. I guess I should let you enjoy your night off."

"I am."

"Yeah well, I'm going to go check out the bar again since I need to get out of this room."

"I wish I could come with."

"Yeah? There are a lot of girls in teeny bikinis out by the pool at this time. You could work on those flirting skills."

"Right. Thanks, Garcia." He rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his lips.

"Okay, well, let me know if you need anything. I'll talk to you later."

"I guess I'll check in before I go to bed." Luke told her. "What time are they planning on being back?"

"Around midnight, if not earlier. There's no real need to make this a late night," she answered him.

"Alright, I'll talk to you then. Have fun, I guess."

"Okay, you too." She hung up but stared at the button she'd just pushed until she saw movement on the camera.

Luke sat down in the chair with a book in his hands again. At least she knew he wasn't going to go to the pool. That was something. She watched him for a few minutes, but she felt like she was invading his privacy even if he knew there was a camera there. She turned it off and decided to get changed for the evening.

Penelope nodded reaching over to make sure the speakers were on loud and clear. Closing the shared door, she looked over to the clock. It was already late afternoon. She didn't realize how tired the night before had made her. She sighed, once again thinking of why she was up so late. She shook her head, before muttering to herself, "Just get dressed, Penelope."

….

She did her makeup and put on the second dress she'd bought the day before and her best bra to go down to the bar and enjoy herself. She wanted to feel as confident as the night before, but she wasn't entirely sure anything would make her feel as good as Luke had. She checked her computer for the information that she had set for it to gather. It was searching for everything on Stacy, and then her software would automatically search for anything on any name associated with her in any fashion. She left it to finish its task as she gave herself a final once over in the mirror.

She grabbed her change purse and her cell and walked to the small but convenient bar downstairs. She ordered a Shirley Temple just like last time but with extra cherries, her only bit of fun for the night. She had eaten the entire jar from the basket already. There was a band playing some salsa music, so she watched with glee as the couples on the floor were twisting and turning. There was no shortage of people-watching. She went through four of the cherry flavored drinks as she enjoyed her night, knowing that, if she'd been allowed to drink four alcoholic beverages, she would've had to call Derek to come pick her up off the floor. She checked the time on her phone again, knowing the others would be back within an hour. She decided she should head back to her room and get prepared for them to debrief.

"Hey, Princess, where are you going? I just got here. Didn't you promise me a dance?" Raul was smiling at her.

She gave him a genuine smile as she stopped her hand movements to get cash out for a tip. "Hi again."

"How are you, Elsa? You didn't want to come salsa with me?"

"Sorry, I don't have the salsa gene." She gestured to the dance floor where people were moving fast to the beat.

"Everyone has their own rhythm. There's nothing wrong with that."

"That's an optimistic way of looking at it."

The music slowed. It was still a latin beat, but the couples were swaying in rhythm instead of bouncing around to it. "Ah ha, this you can do." He held his hand to her.

She was going to decline again, but instead she figured she was allowed to have some fun. She nodded shyly. "One dance, but I have to get up early for a conference call, so I have to go after this."

He put his hand up, indicating he wouldn't protest. He pulled her onto the dance floor and started swaying with her, talking about his week and how he wasn't keeping up with his younger companions as well as he would have liked. She found his description of the various antics of the rest of the party to be quite hilarious. As the song ended, she thanked him for the dance and was almost reluctant to leave him. He was a decent dancer and an even better conversation companion.

She had almost forgotten. "Hey, thanks for the basket by the way."

"What basket, Princess?" He gave her a big smile, but he was genuinely confused.

She gave him a befuddled look back. "Uh." She gave him an even bigger smile. Maybe he was playing coy. She shrugged. "Never mind. I'm sorry to do this, but I have to get going."

"Ah, the Princess, always leaving before she turns into a pumpkin. Let me walk you to your room, It's quite late," he told her.

"Oh no, it's okay. It's just upstairs as you know."

"Okay, I will walk you to the elevator then, okay?"

She smiled at him. "Okay. Thank you."

They walked out of the bar and through the lobby. She pushed the elevator button, and they chatted happily as they waited for it to arrive. At that moment, she saw Emily and JJ enter the lobby, quickly followed by Derek and Matt. Since her night had felt so normal until then, she was going to give them a happy greeting, until she remembered she wasn't supposed to know them. She stopped herself short, looking back to Raul as he continued to speak about his tux fitting. She wasn't sure if Ra would say anything about them being the same people from the other night or if he'd paid enough attention to have figured it out.

She saw Derek smirk at her, as he moved his eyes between Raul to her. She almost rolled her eyes. She had forgotten how they had all acted the other night. She stared him down, begging him not to say anything. Matt was next to him smiling, and the girls were doing their best to glance over, discreetly.

"Ra, we need you for a picture, man," a younger version of Raul called for him from the bar entrance from across the lobby. She assumed it was his brother.

"Alright, well, that's my cue. See you later, princess. Thanks for the dance."

She smiled at him and waved a goodbye. The elevator arrived, and all five of them got in, silently. When the door shut, she could feel all their eyes on her back. She spoke without looking behind her. "Shut it, just shut it."

They all chuckled silently, giving each other side glances but wisely said nothing. The walk from the elevator to the rooms was just as quiet, until they reached her door.

"Baby Gi-"

"I'm tired, I'm going to bed," she announced.

"Okay, nothing much happened. We can fill you in in the morning," Prentiss said nicely.

She nodded her agreement, without giving any of them a glance or a good night. As she entered her room, the buzzing hit her ears immediately. She flung her change purse on the bed and grabbed the headset urgently. "I'm here. I'm here."

"Where are you?" Luke's voice was angry.

She scoffed. She was already annoyed at the others, even if they hadn't actually said anything. She didn't need his attitude too. "Well I just said I'm here which means I'm in my room obviously."

"Where's the guy you were dancing with?"

"Excuse me. You were watching me? That's super creepy."

"I wasn't watching you. I walked over there, thinking I might be able to talk to you casually without being noticed. Considering that our probable killer is in Tampa, and anyone who knows me is in the middle of a show right now, I figured it would be okay. Then I saw you were dancing, and then you left with a random guy. I thought I should check on your safety."

"I'm obviously safe, Alvez, and I'm going to bed. _Alone_." She flung the headset away from her and kicked off her shoes. She growled, before taking a deep breath and calming herself. She walked over to her desk. She disconnected the headset, not wanting a repeat of the day's earlier miscommunication fiasco. The screens showed that it was completely dark in his room. "Glad to see he can sleep so easily," she scoffed again.

She went to the bathroom thinking she would just take a bath and try to relax. She was reaching into her bag for the lavender oil that she was happy she had packed when she heard a knock on the door. She rolled her eyes. "Nice try, Penelope." She went to open it, expecting Emily to be there with orders to research everything under the sun about someone or something urgent, but instead there he was. He quickly pushed her into the room, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

I apologize for not having an update yesterday on any of my stories, I was a little discouraged by the plagiarism. I do appreciate everyone. Thank you for the reviews, favs, and follows, and for that matter the PM's, Tweets, and emails. I will finish every story that I have out and I have a few more written that are not even published at all yet that I will publish as well. But in light of the unfortunate circumstances I will be cutting back my time on churning out new Garvez as I feel like I should concentrate more on my original work because if my stuff is good enough to copy maybe it's good enough to pay for one day! Hahahaha. Thanks, everyone.


	16. Chapter 16

Another weird day for me. I saw a specialist today and the suggestions were not great. Anyway, I'm a little down and out. So once again nothing clever to say except thank you all for being here. (And for not plagiarizing my work! haha)

* * *

"Wha-what are you doing?" she whispered harshly to him.

"I wanted to see you," he spoke in a low voice.

"What? Why?" she asked with her brows furrowed.

He took a deep breath. "Garcia, I wasn't spying on you. I was coming to see you, and I saw you finish a dance and then walk away with some guy. What was I supposed to think?"

"I don't know. I guess, maybe that some guy liked dancing with me and wanted to walk me to my door."

"Right, he just wanted to walk you to your door." His voice got louder.

"Hey, shhh." She brought her hands up to indicate he should lower his voice. "Derek and Matt have the room right through there." She pointed at the door in the middle of the wall. "And so what if it was something else? I'm a full grown adult, and I have the night off."

"Right, so you wanted him to do more than walk?"

"No. But I can do what I want."

"What do you want, Garcia?" He took a few steps towards her.

She only took one step back. "Well, I was going to take a bath, but you interrupted that didn't you."

"I wouldn't mind that."

"I-I-what does that mean?"

"Penelope, I don't have any flowers or diamonds on me, so instead I'm just going to talk to you like you're a real person." He inched closer to her. "I don't want you to let anyone else walk you home because I want to be the one who gets to do that. If you don't feel the same way, fine, but I'm tired of trying to figure you out, so there it is. Do with it what you will."

"You're tired of trying to figure me out? Me? I-I-I'm the one who can't hide anything ever! You're the profiler, you jerk. You know exactly how much I want you."

The fire in his eyes was still there, but it turned from frustration to lust. "You want..." He trailed off not really processing her words yet.

"What?"

"You want me?" He was invading her space as he finally let his brain catch up to the moment.

She stared him down and let her eyes travel down to the ground before squaring her shoulders. "Everyday, since I've met you."

He smiled at her. "Good, me too." He grabbed her face, kissing her as hard as she'd ever been kissed. She was only momentarily unbalanced, but she grabbed him around his middle as his kiss took her breath away. She had been waiting for this for a long time, and she'd be damned if she didn't take full advantage of it. She started to grab at his buttons, which made him pull away.

"Penelope, what are you doing?" His breathing was ragged as he stared into her eyes.

"What I want to do."

"Don't you want me to take you on a date, or buy those flowers you were talking about, or something else that my brain can't summon right now?"

"Yeah, yeah, all that. Dinner maybe, not flowers. I hate flowers, but a mermaid pencil or whatever. But yeah, right now, this."

"Are you certain?"

"Luke, if you feel half of what I feel, then the answer is yes. And if you don't, well I can haunt you at work by putting viruses that erase all your reports before you send them."

He chuckled. "Don't worry, I feel it more than you do."

"Doubt that."

"You want to argue right now?"

She shook her head shyly.

"Good." He ran his hands up the front of her dress in between her breasts up to her neck gripping her.

She reached behind her, turned the lock on the adjoining door, and then pushed him back towards the bed.

He took the hint and walked the few steps backwards. He spun her and pulled her down with him both laying on their sides and kissing each other. He pulled away. "Why this dress? This dress isn't fair." He put his lips on the cleavage that was abundant at the top of it, kissing her skin and leaving a trail. He gave a low moan, making his way from one to the other. She was holding him to her and watching his movements. She felt the wetness between her legs, knowing it wasn't going to take him much to leave her satisfied.

"Luke, oh my God, just take it off. Take everything off," she gasped.

He'd have smirked if it weren't so surreal that the woman he wasn't sure hated him a little bit was begging him to get her naked. He reached for the hem of her dress, pulling it up her body and over her head. As soon as it was off she was reaching to his shirt pulling at the buttons. He brought his hands down to help her, disposing of his shirt swiftly. She grabbed the buckle of his pants, and he watched her hands work to pull it open, then the button and zipper. He pushed them down his own hips, quickly throwing them to the growing pile of clothing.

Both in their underwear on their sides facing each other, he took a moment to look at her. She was about to shrink away, feeling suddenly self conscious under his inspection. Suddenly he reached behind her, unclasping the bra that was in his way, while he continued to put kisses on her skin. When he'd gotten it unhooked, he pulled back taking it off of her arms. Before she even knew what was happening, his lips were on her nipple, sucking at it like his entire existence depended on whether or not he could. His hand reached up to grip her breast, giving it a firm squeeze. She gave a low moan at the dual assault. "I want to be loud, but I can't."

"Next time, you're going to scream my name, and that's not my ego talking. That's just a promise." He caught her eyes, telling her that he was serious. She ran her hands down his stomach, feeling the lines she'd seen through his shirts and from the somewhat timid events of yesterday. She kept eye contact as she started pushing at his boxers, letting them go past his hips and gripping him in her hand. He took a deep breath, scanning her eyes as she started moving her hand, exploring the feel of him. She felt bold suddenly. When she saw the fire in his eyes, she pushed him back, placing a kiss or two on his chest and abs before taking him into her mouth.

"Oh fuck." He grabbed her hair, trying to maintain some kind of composure.

She worked her way up and down a few times, taking him as deep as she could go in her current position. She noted that she would have one hell of a job on her hands when she went for the full show someday. Someday soon, she promised herself. She lifted her head. "You're going to scream my name too."

His eyes narrowed at her as he pulled his boxers all the way off and then reached to her underwear pulling them off of her as she raised her hips and legs to help him. She was naked, and so was he. They were laying on their sides looking each other up and down. "I'm not the only one who's waxed," he leered.

"True. I didn't know I'd enjoy this as much as I am." She put her hand just above his arousal.

"Should I book another one next month?"

"I'll let you know."

He gripped her hip and moved his pelvis near hers. "Do we need?"

"No, birth control. Unless you want."

"We know each other well enough. Neither of us is hiding anything. Except maybe our feelings."

She smirked at him. He lined himself up with her, running his eyes over her face, either trying to memorize it or figure out the mystery that was Penelope Garcia. She nodded almost imperceptibly, hoping he wouldn't make her wait any longer.

He dug his fingers half in her hip, half into her ass. She extended her hand out to grip his arm for leverage. He pushed himself inside of her, watching her face as he did so. She tried her hardest to keep eye contact, and she did as the first few inches slid into her agonizingly slow, but soon she couldn't anymore. She moaned and bit her lip, her eyes closing as she did. He drove the rest of the way into her harshly, making her let out a little yip before controlling herself again. Her breathing immediately became heavy. He started to move inside of her, observing her face before leaning in to recapture her lips.

She dug her fingernails into the biceps she refused to let go of and started to move her hips to meet his, making him let out his own moan. "I can't wait to scream your name, Penelope," he said to her in a low voice as they began to move faster. He brought his lips down to her breasts, licking and kissing her flesh and barely running his teeth over her nipples.

She knew this was going to be an easy orgasm. He'd been in her less than a minute, but she started to feel it building. She put her other hand on his chest, trying to keep the movement they had in the exact spot as she felt it coming over her. She leaned forward and bit his chest to muffle her own scream. His nostrils flared at her actions. As soon as her hips stopped moving, he pushed her onto her back, never slipping out of her, and slammed into her as hard as he could feeling the gush of liquid surrounding him. She was trying to regain her clarity, but she could feel it building again. The way he was above her on his knees made him hit the spot she needed and also let his pelvis glide over her clit. She could feel it about to come, the elusive multiple orgasm, rare, unless she used the good batteries. She had nothing to bite down on. His body too far away with him on his knees thrusting into her, watching their joining. She reached out to grip the headboard, which she realized was to her side and not behind her. She wrapped her hand around it holding onto it, as she tried her hardest to muffle the sound that was threatening to escalate. It came out as more of satisfied squeal, his eyes had widened watching her try to control her own body. He pumped a few more times before emptying himself into her. He fell forward, catching himself on his forearms, his mouth biting onto her shoulder as he muffled any sound he was going to make. He started to kiss her immediately, not letting either of them catch their breath.

"Penelope!" Derek's voice filtered through her head.

They pulled away from each other, eyes wide.

"Penelope!" She heard it coming from the direction of the adjoining door.

"Don't worry. I locked it," she assured Luke.

Derek looked at the other three agents that he had been chatting with about the case. They decided to brainstorm since it was an early night. JJ's eyes were wide as she tried to get the answer Derek hadn't yet, "Garcia!"

"Penelope," Derek said again urgently.

"She might have hurt herself. That bang sounded like she dropped something heavy," Simmons said to the others, who were equally concerned.

Luke and Penelope on the other side of the door could only hear muffled voices speaking to each other. They stayed quiet. Next they heard a knock.

Derek pulled out his gun, always safe rather than sorry. "Penelope, I'm coming in!" He motioned the others to stand back, but Matt moved forward ready to help him with the door.

"Derek Morgan, don't you dare kick down that door!" Penelope's loud voice was heard clearly through the door.

He leaned his head forward, still alert. "Penelope, are you okay?"

"Derek, I'm fine."

"What was that? We heard you drop something, and we thought we heard you yell," Derek questioned.

"Oh my God, Derek! Don't make me explain this to you, please. The walls are very thin. I think we can all figure it out."

Derek looked to the other three, whose faces went from shock to understanding, until they all began to giggle. Derek furrowed his eyebrows at the door. "I cannot believe that girl."

Prentiss smirked at him. "Well it is Miami. There's so many people around, not hard to find a-"

Penelope interrupted from the other side of the door. "Please, close your side of the door. We can hear you. Go away now!"

Derek stepped back, shutting their side of the door, turning to the others. "That guy at the elevator? Why?"

"He was hot." Emily nodded.

Derek made a face at her. "Let's go to bed. I need to put my headphones on."

Simmons was still laughing, as the two giggling women left the room. Derek gave one last look towards the door he shared with his best friend, shook his head, and turned in for the night.

"Oh my God! What almost just happened?" Penelope turned to Luke.

He was trying not to laugh. "I think our family almost just saw us in all our glory."

She playfully slapped his chest. "What would we have done?"

He shrugged. "Waited until they left, and then started up again?"

"Not funny." But she was smiling wildly at his grinning face.

"I don't have to check in for hours. Want to take that bath?" He leered at her.

"You're still inside of me, and you want to take a bath?"

He growled at her, his cheek muscles flexing at her words as he glanced down to where they were still joined. "I want to do you in the bathroom, is what I'm saying."

"Well, in that case." She smirked and shrugged. "Who am I to object?"

….

Luke spurred awake as soon as the sun was peeking over the horizon. He knew he had to get back to his room before anyone saw anything at all. He checked his watch. They had barely been asleep for forty-five minutes since their last encounter. He smirked, they had gotten mighty creative already considering that they had to be quiet.

He pulled his arm out from under her. She rolled over and mumbled, "You have to go?"

"Yeah, it's after six already. Should go back to mine. I'm an early riser, so, if it were the team or the guys, they all know that about me." He got out of the bed and began dressing himself.

She nodded as she sat up. The blanket that had been covering them both fell to her lap, and she sat there topless as she yawned. "Okay, I'm going to sleep because everyone knows I am not an early riser, and then I'll go over what I got on Stacy. You can take a copy if you'd like." She reached over to her laptop and hit print on the file that her computer had created.

Luke was staring at her chest, smirking at the fact that he got to see them now. She hadn't even pretended to try and cover herself up. "Yeah, sounds good." He was fully clothed, but he leaned over her to kiss her again. He let his hands come up to squeeze her breasts which made her giggle.

"Aren't you supposed to be leaving?"

"Had to do something while we waited for the printer." He winked at her and rounded the bed to grab the papers from the desk. "Okay, see you later, Chica. See _all_ of you later." He teased her, and she threw a pillow towards him, but he caught it and threw it back at her before giving her a sincere smile, which she returned. He opened the door and left a lot happier than when he'd arrived.

* * *

Thanks for reaching out to me in any capacity. I have had some weird days so I am sorry if I haven't gotten back to you yet.

Thanks to BookDragon2013 for loving and betaing this story.


	17. Chapter 17

I've been in a lot of pain the past few days. Maybe from moving? Anyway, it goes in and out so I'm about a half hour late posting this but I don't like to disappoint. Short and sweet; thanks for the reviews, favs, and follows. Last chapter of When is most likely getting posted tomorrow.

* * *

JJ and Emily were almost ready for the day. Luckily with the earlier night, it gave them time to rest and get back on a better schedule. They were aware it might only last until that night, but they still were grateful for their little reprieve from going to bed when it was already morning. They decided to go to breakfast and take Penelope with them. With their best suspects currently out of town, they had a little extra time on their hands.

"Is this not a _little_ out of character for her though?" JJ continued the conversation her and Emily had started before she had hopped in the shower.

"I guess so, but I suppose I see the appeal. She's someone else entirely down here, and, hey, the guy was pretty good looking." Emily fixed her bangs in the mirror before turning around to look at JJ. "Despite the fedora." She laughed.

"I guess so." JJ had seen Penelope make out with a few guys she met at the bar over the years. Usually it was just a drunken good time, and it wasn't very often, but, trying to reconcile her friend having a one night stand when it wasn't all that much like her to do so, especially when sober, it was a lot to take in. "Just… I could've sworn she was getting closer to just admitting how she feels about Luke, and then this… I just don't get it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, but maybe that's why she did it. Watching Luke grind and gyrate probably isn't her idea of a good time, at least not publicly. He also has to work the charm with every girl he sees, so maybe she needed a momentary distraction. I don't blame her," Emily said as she put her gun under her shirt.

"True. It would probably help get my mind off of things. Either way, I'm glad we're taking her to breakfast. I want to know everything." JJ raised her eyes at Emily before leading the way out of the door.

She tried to contain her grin as she knocked on Penelope's door. "Garcia! Garcia, wake up." She knocked again to no answer. She turned to Emily with a confused face.

"She probably got less sleep than we did." Emily pointed to the next door down. "Let's talk to the boys first and give her a minute to get situated."

"Hey, Garcia, get up and ready. We're taking you to breakfast in twenty," JJ yelled loud enough that even a sexed-up, sleep-deprived person could hear her voice.

Simmons had the door open before they were even there. "So I guess Garcia is still resting then," he said to them as they walked in, shutting the door behind them. "Don't blame her. Derek put his headphones on, but I was not lucky enough to have packed mine, so I heard quite a few bumps and hushed moans at about two and then two thirty and then three fifteen and then four, and then finally I gave up and put cotton balls in my ears."

Both Emily and JJ were bent over in laughter while Derek had his arms crossed and eyebrows raised. "I don't think I want to know this," he said contemplatively.

"Oh come on with all the shit you two talk about, this is where you draw the line?" Emily asked him with amusement in her voice.

"No, it's not that. Just that _Raul_ guy was weird. Am I wrong?" he deferred to the others for an answer.

JJ shook her head. "Not really. He just seemed like a guy on vacation. Nice enough, good looking, and also sort of a gentleman."

"Yeah, I guess so." He tipped his head before turning back to them. "I don't mean to say this to sound jealous, although I don't think I can say it any other way. I really just didn't like her flirting with that guy. He just didn't seem good enough," Derek observed.

The other three smiled. "What about her boyfriends over the years? Did you not like them either?" Matt had his arms crossed over his chest as he asked.

Derek bopped his head side to side in contemplation. "They were alright. I even told her Kevin was a nice guy, but I sort of knew that she wasn't really going to go too far with that." He shrugged. "Not really sure."

Emily smiled. "I think you just don't like thinking of her as the one night stand girl. You like her keeping all of her lascivious behavior just for you." Emily teased him.

He let out an inaudible chuckle. "Hey, maybe you're right. Lynch and Sam were harmless boyfriends in my eyes. I had them figured out before she did. I don't like being in the dark," he agreed.

"Hey, ya know what? I'm kind of with you on that. I thought she wouldn't do anything while she was still so hung up on Luke. I can see how she feels, and I guess I thought that she would either have to do something about it, or she would wait for it to go away." JJ shrugged at the group.

"I thought that too, but maybe that's why she found someone else. When you all were gone the other night, I saw her glaring at that screen in there. She didn't like watching him flirt, fake or not. Every time he referred to breasts in any way, she would flinch," Matt recounted.

"Self preservation." Emily tilted her head in understanding. "Well, we're taking her to breakfast. If she needs to talk, hopefully she will."

Derek took the cue to change the subject. "So when are we expecting our Ms. Stacy back?"

"I talked to Sero. He put a couple people in their hotel. They're supposed to check out of their room today, and then they have an appointment with an interior designer in the afternoon, so probably by tonight."

"So we're back on the town in full force tonight?" Simmons asked.

"Looks that way, although I'm not really sure that's the best course of action. We can get close to Ruiz, no problem, but there's no reason to get close to Stacy. I guess we have to hope she takes the bait from Alvez. As long as we keep an eye on Ruiz, he can't carry out any kills," Emily said.

"You know one thing we haven't thought about yet? Why Stacy? I mean, for Ruiz. Sure we know that she might have an inside track on things, but he has a lot of hired muscle. Plenty of people are loyal enough to him, so why does he kill for her? He must know not all of the people she tells him to kill are bad for business." Derek was off on one of his thought processes again.

"Right, in fact, he's hurting his business. Some of those guys were popular attractions, and I'm sure if any of the stories took off then there would be bad press about a lot of guys dying from his clubs," Simmons agreed.

"Maybe he has some other loyalty to her as well," Derek said.

"Or she has something on him," JJ offered.

"Well she could probably bring down his operation if she ever flipped on him," Emily said.

"If she's blackmailing him, he could just kill her, problem solved. No, there's something else there," Derek said.

"Is it possible he's in love with her?" Matt offered.

"We saw them together. He wasn't acting like a man in love." JJ's voice was contemplative. "He almost treated her like a best friend. It's not romantic between those two."

"Could they have known each other before? He was raised by his Aunt up in Orlando, and she was raised by her mother down here in Miami," Derek said.

"But the town in the photo was closer to Daytona," Matt reminded them.

There were a couple of moments of silence as they all thought. "Wait, why was he raised by his Aunt again? It was because his mother died, right?" Prentiss was searching for the information in her head.

"Right, it was something about- she was killed in a home invasion, but they thought that it was someone she knew, an old boyfriend maybe, but it was never proven, and that guy was in the wind." JJ remembered the few lines in the file on the guy's background.

"The guy they suspected, anyone remember his name? Where's Reid when you need him?" Emily was frustrated as she tried to recall the information that had seemed irrelevant when she was reading up on his current drug operation.

"It was Thompson," Derek said.

"Last name was Thompson?" Simmons furrowed his eyebrows.

"No, first name. That's why I remember, because I thought it was a weird first name. Last name was Meyers." Derek looked at him.

Emily's face lit up with understanding. "And what was Stacy's last name in the art competition photo?"

"Britwell," JJ recalled.

"That name, it was somewhere else. I think it was the boyfriend's lawyer's name." Emily was frustrated as she tried to connect the dots.

"Damn it, we've got to see what Garcia found. This might be something we haven't even thought of." Emily walked to the adjoining door and knocked harshly. "Garcia! Garcia, we need your search results. Sorry, no time off today," she spoke authoritatively.

"She can't still be getting ready," JJ said, "unless she's in the shower and can't hear."

"No, no. Believe me. I think I heard some of the moaning _coming from_ the shower. I don't think it's that soundproof," Matt said seriously.

"Well, I almost kicked down the door yesterday to an eyeful of something I don't think she wanted me to see, so what should we do?" Derek turned to Emily.

Emily nodded. "Actually, I have the spare keys in my room. Last night, I didn't think about it since we were sure something was happening. I'll go get hers. Keep knocking just in case she has on her headset. I'll be right back." Emily departed to get the extra key while the others banged on the door and then listened for an answer, hearing nothing.

After finding the key, Emily went to Penelope's front door, knocking again and calling for her. "Garcia, I am coming in." She warned just in case Penelope was having morning sex and hadn't wanted to answer to work yet. She slowly opened the door, sticking her head in and seeing the blankets on the floor, not out of the ordinary after a hookup. It wasn't until she saw the laptop on the ground that she knew something was wrong. She pulled her gun out and slowly made her way to the adjoining door with her back to the wall. She unlocked her side of it letting the others in.

They saw the disarray and all pulled out their weapons. The small room made it all but clear Garcia was long gone, but they silently waited until Derek checked the bathroom. He put his gun to his side. "Damn it, where is she? I knew I didn't like that guy." He threw a punch to the picture on the wall, shattering the glass in it, as he paced.

"Okay, okay. What do we know about him?" Emily put on her leader hat immediately.

"His name's Raul," JJ said.

"He's staying in the room next to Luke's," Matt responded. "Remember she said he was staying next to him when she had to set up the cameras."

"Okay, let's go." Derek was halfway across the room in two strides.

"Wait, what about our cover? This guy has nothing to do with Ruiz." JJ was trying to maintain her professional thought process, despite the corner of her eyes feeling glassy.

"Screw our cover. It's Garcia," Derek said in rage as he stared JJ down.

"No, I know that. I jus-" She knew how he felt. She felt the same way, but she wasn't sure if she was thinking clearly or not.

Emily spoke again with as much logic as she could assemble. "Our cover is not Luke's cover. Let's just check this guy out first, and then we'll go from there. Guns away." She nodded at the team. They all put their guns back in their hiding places underneath their clothes. Derek was the last one, and he reluctantly did so.

They rushed to the front desk. Emily immediately asked for whomever was in charge. The manager came out, and she flashed a badge. "Quiet place we can talk?" she inquired discreetly. The man nodded and led them to his office.

"What's this about? What do the police need here?" The middle aged man already appeared exhausted before he asked the questions.

"We're FBI, and we believe one of our agents, who was staying here with us, has been kidnapped. We need to know everything you have about a Raul staying in room 117 on the poolside," Emily said quickly.

The manager started typing into his computer. "Okay the room is under a different name, Daryl Hernandez, but it looks like they have seven rooms in that name. They're here for a wedding." The guy looked up at the four agents, wondering what the hell this had to do with anything. "Actually, I know this group. They have deliveries coming at the end of the week for the ceremony."

The other three agents glanced at each other with questions in their eyes before Emily spoke. "We need to know which room Daryl is staying in, and we're going to need to see the surveillance footage from the second floor of the courtyard side of the hotel, specifically anything close to room 234. Can you give us the spare key to 117? We're going to need to check it out."

The manager nodded and did what he was told, handing her the key. "I'll have my security pull the footage. It'll take a few minutes. The groom is in 132."

"We'll be back in ten," Emily told him as they hastened their steps out of his office.

They got to the room belonging to Daryl, knocked, and heard shuffling behind the door, so they knocked again. "Daryl Hernandez, we need to speak with you."

"I have the 'don't disturb' sign out for a reason." The man squinted at the sunlight as he opened the door.

Emily held her badge up, and the man immediately stood up straighter. "What is this?" He looked at all four faces.

The four agents could see the resemblance to the man they knew as Raul. "Where is Raul? We need to speak to him," Emily said as she put her badge away.

"He hooked up with some girl last night. He went home with her," he said. "Wait, is he okay?"

"We don't know where him or that woman is, and that's what we need to find out. Can you tell us when he left with the woman?" Emily asked.

"I don't know. We were all drinking. I think it was around one," he said.

"Does your brother have any history of violence?" Emily questioned.

The man looked taken aback, "What? No, of course not. We're down here for my wedding. If anything happened to that lady, I'm sorry, but there's no way that he's the guy who did it."

"We hope not, sir," Emily said in her most mundane voice. "Is he staying in room 117?" The man nodded at her. "Alone?"

"Yes, he's my big brother. I gave him his own room."

"Okay, we're going to need you to stay here. Please keep your door shut for safety, and we will be back. It's possible this is all just a misunderstanding." She wanted to reassure the man. It was clear he didn't have a clue what was happening, but she didn't need him getting in the way.

Derek had been trying to stay calm, but he felt like he needed some action, and right now it felt like they should be chasing somebody and not asking some hungover groom about his late night. He led the way towards the hotel room that Raul had been staying in. Emily and Derek knocked while Simmons and JJ kept a watch over the courtyard.

"Mr. Hernandez, FBI." Emily unlocked the door instead of letting Derek kick it down like she knew he wanted to do. At this point, they had zero proof of anything. The two quickly cleared the small room. Simmons and JJ followed them in as soon as they heard Derek say clear.

"His stuff is still here, and the bed is completely untouched. He definitely didn't sleep here last night. I guess that isn't news. Damn it." He wanted to punch something, kick something, shoot something, but there were early risers out and about and bringing more attention to themselves was probably not in Penelope's best interest.

"Okay, this is our priority now. If Sero has to start this operation all over again, then so be it. Let's get Alvez and find our girl," Emily said.


	18. Chapter 18

Hey, I've been in a lot of pain so everything is taking time and I haven't had a chance to respond to any of you. But I thought I would post this quickly. Thanks for everything!

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Luke decided he should try and sleep a little more too. He didn't have to be at the club until nighttime, and he wasn't supposed to be meeting anyone that day. Sleeping in was easier to explain than being up at dawn making his bed and going for a long run when he was supposed to be a party boy at night. He smiled as soon as his eyes opened. He didn't get to sleep next to the woman that had occupied his mind these past two years, but he did spend the majority of the night inside of her. So in their current state of work, he could live with that.

He only had a couple hours of sleep, but he felt fairly energized. He swung his legs off the bed and headed to the bathroom. He took a shower, almost reluctantly, because he didn't want to wash her scent off of him. Despite the fact that he'd taken a shower with her, he had promptly got sweaty again four more times after that. He smiled at the recent memory that he knew would always be happily seared in his mind. He got out of the shower and was towelling off when he heard a knock on his door. Grabbing his jeans, he hurriedly tried to put them on, so he could see who would be knocking at this time of day.

He was almost annoyed at the insistent knocking until he heard a familiar voice. "Alvez."

His face turned in puzzlement as he recognized the voice. "Morgan?" He swiftly zipped his pants and rushed to the door, opening it quickly.

The four agents hastily filed into the room, concern maring their faces. "Luke, we have a problem." Matt shut the door behind him.

"Big enough to possibly blow my cover?" he asked with genuine concern, but a little frustration in his voice.

"Garcia is missing," Prentiss said, in the calmest voice she could muster.

"What?" Luke was disoriented and in pain immediately upon hearing the words. The confusion on his face indicated that what he'd just been told didn't make a lick of sense to him.

"She slept with some guy last night, and he's conveniently nowhere to be found now," Simmons mentioned.

"He was in her room around midnight, but we don't know when he actually took her," JJ said.

"No, no, no, that's not- no-" Luke's mind was not catching up to his mouth as he shook his head.

"Alvez, we can't-" Derek was angry and not ready to waste any time explaining simple things to Luke.

"No. She wasn't with that guy," Luke said, his voice rising in anger as he stared Derek down.

"Alvez, there's no time for jealousy right now. We-" Derek's voice had already been angry, but the volume of it also increased.

Luke cut him off. "No, _I mean_ she wasn't with that guy. It was me. I was in her room last night," Luke informed them as calmly as he could but with as much authority as he could summon.

The four people in front of him were observing him. They were all fittingly stunned as they processed the information. Emily recovered first, "When did you last see her?"

"I left at six thirty."

"That was just a little over three hours ago," JJ stated.

"The hotel is getting us the surveillance now, and that narrows down the time frame. Let's go check it out. We need to figure out what could've happened in only a few hours." Emily nodded at them to exit.

Luke quickly grabbed his gun and threw on a shirt. He saw the papers that Penelope had printed for him before he left and grabbed them as well. He followed the others to the main hotel office as he buttoned his shirt. He was trailing the others as he tried to compartmentalize his emotions. He needed to find her, and he needed to be thinking straight in order to do that.

The five of them gathered around a screen in the hotel's security room. The closest camera was at the corner of the balcony nearly right above Emily and JJ's shared room. They had the security guard fast forward to the correct time.

"Okay, stop it right there," Emily instructed him.

"Yes, ma'am." The security guard pushed a button, surveying the footage with them.

At exactly six thirty they could see Luke rounding the corner and heading down the stairs towards his hotel. "Keep it going," Prentis instructed. "Stop as soon as you see any other movement."

The security staffer nodded at her and squinted his eyes at the screen, watching along with them for any activity. They didn't have to wait long. "Oh, wait." He hit rewind and then play.

The clock on the video showed it was just a few minutes after seven. They saw Stacy followed by Ruiz coming up the stairs. They all took a deep breath as their eyes were glued to the small screen in front of them. Just a few minutes later, they saw Ruiz walking away. Penelope was clearly knocked out over his shoulder. Stacy was behind him with a huge smile on her face as she followed him around the corner.

"Damn it." Derek hit the wall with his fist. Then he started pacing as he ran his hand over his head.

JJ was on the verge of tears as Prentiss spoke. "Okay. Where would they take her?" She turned to Luke. He was trying to keep as calm as possible, but she could tell his eyes were worried.

"He owns fourteen buildings here and then one in Tampa." Luke was trying to process the information as if it was a regular case. "Twelve of them are bars or clubs, not open right now, but employees come in during the day to get things ready. A clean up crew comes sometimes too."

"If he thinks we're onto him, he wouldn't take her to a place we've been either," Prentiss said.

"Okay, so that leaves three possible buildings," Simmons put in. "They wouldn't risk travelling, especially if they know she's FBI. We'd have road blocks and APB's up as soon as we knew."

"Alright, so what are the other two buildings here?" Prentiss questioned Luke.

"One is a small Cuban bakery, but they're open everyday and probably start baking at three in the morning. The other is a child care center, but he just owns the property. Both of those places are rented out to tenants," Luke informed them.

"Today is Saturday though. Most daycare centers are closed," JJ informed them. "If he needed a place to take her that he has easy access to where they wouldn't be disturbed…"

Prentiss nodded. "That has to be it. I am calling Sero to explain the situation and see if he can give us backup."

"I'm going to look up the address." JJ pulled out her phone.

Prentiss was putting her own phone up to her ear. "Morgan, Alvez, go get the cars. Pull them around front."

"Simmons." Derek threw the keys to the other man.

Luke squinted at him but said nothing. Emily nodded to Matt who turned to her in question. He followed Derek to the cars, leaving Luke to stare at the screen in front of him again. He let himself get lost for a moment as he took in the still shot of Penelope over Ruiz's shoulder. Then he remembered the papers he rolled up in his back pocket. He scanned them quickly while everyone else was seeing to their own task. His eyes widened in shock.

"Prentiss, JJ," Luke got their attention as Emily hung up the phone. "Penelope printed this for me before I left this morning. I didn't read it yet because I thought I'd have time today before Ruiz and Stacy returned, but look." He handed them the paper, and they put their heads together to scan it as he explained. "The man accused of killing Ruiz's mother, he is Stacy's biological dad. Those photos are the same guy despite the name change."

"This is what that connection was. That's why we were waking Garcia up to see what she found. We were just brainstorming before, but we knew that the name sounded familiar. So he changed his name a lot. Took this one from his lawyer," JJ cited what they found.

"Yeah, and if this is Stacy's dad, then-"

Luke cut Emily off. "She and Ruiz share the same biological father."

"That's why he protects her. She's his sister," Emily agreed.

"Yeah, and this guy abandoned them both. It says that he never paid child support, and then he vanished when they went after him for it. He was in the wind. When they found him again, he had a baby with someone else, and, for that family, he stayed, at least for a while. Of course, she'd change her name, but, more importantly, that's why she wants someone to choose her, to love her above someone else." Luke was frustrated as he brought his hand across his forehead.

"Yup, both Stacy and her brother have a vendetta, and apparently it's in their DNA to murder, thanks to the same deadbeat dad. Alright, we need to find Garcia." Emily turned to JJ.

"Got the address. It's a fifteen minute drive," JJ informed them.

"Sero is going to meet us there." Emily scanned Luke's face, seeing pain, but most of all determination. "Let's go." She led the way out with JJ and Luke following her lead.

Luke got in the car driven by Matt. He wasn't going to make Derek any more angry than he already was. After all, that would do nothing for Penelope. "We need to pull up schematics for the building," he spoke to Prentiss who was in the front seat.

Emily blinked. He was right. Penelope would've already done that without making her even have to think about it. If she wasn't so worried, she would have laughed at the fact that Luke, always telling Penelope to do things she would do automatically, actually helped in this situation. "You're right." She picked up her phone, called Anderson, and had him find the blueprints for the place. He relayed the information before they even arrived.

Only a few minutes later, their cars pulled up outside of the center. All of them had their guns drawn as they exited their vehicles. "Okay, three points of entry. Alvez, Morgan, and I will take the front. JJ, Simmons take the back. Sero says he's got people on the way, five minutes out. They'll take the basement entrance. There is also a possible entrance on the roof, but Anderson says it's not clear whether or not it's a vent or larger."

"No, screw that. We're not waiting," Derek said forcefully.

Luke calmly responded, "No, Sero and his team are good. We need to wait."

Derek got close to his face attempting to intimidate him. Matt stepped forward ready to intervene, but Emily spoke first. "Guys, we are not doing this right now. This does not help Garcia."

Derek didn't make a move forward, but he also didn't take a step back. "I love that girl. She's my best friend, and we're going to get her now."

Luke finally lost his calm, pulling out his com as he stepped closer to Derek. "And I love her too, so that's why we're doing this correctly because I don't know about you, but I'm not letting my ego put her safety on the line."

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you decided to visit her room in the middle of the night, putting her in danger in the first place." Derek spit the words at him.

Luke didn't back down as he responded, but he purposely didn't escalate the situation. "Believe me, nobody will ever be as mad at me as I am. It doesn't change the fact that we need to wait." Luke's ability to work calmly under pressure was something that he was grateful for at that moment. He'd been through hell, and he wasn't going back there by letting Penelope get hurt. He stared Derek down, unflinching and unwavering.

Derek took a step back but didn't take his eyes off of Luke. "Prentiss." He deferred to her since it was ultimately her call.

She licked her lip in frustration, never missing Hotch more in her life than at that moment. "We need to wait for backup before we move in, but we can still set up along the perimeter and see if we can get eyes on her," Prentiss informed them. They took their direction and surrounded the small building trying to look in through the windows without being seen. Emily checked her phone when she felt it vibrate in her pocket and whispered into her com, "Two minutes out."

"Ruiz's car is parked back here," Simmons whispered into his com, making the three agents in the front of the building look to each other confirming that they needed to proceed with caution.

There was a fire escape ladder that was on the side of the building leading to the roof. Derek nodded at it. "I'm going up there." He was holstering his gun in order to climb.

"Morgan, no," Prentiss said firmly.

"Prentiss, I'm going," he argued.

"No, you're not." She shot daggers at him with her eyes. "Alvez, go." Luke nodded and holstered his gun, quietly but swiftly climbing the rungs of the ladder.

Derek had pulled his gun back out holding it at the ready. "Emily, what the hell was that?"

She kept her eyes on the building, peeking into a window as she spoke. "You're too emotionally compromised. I don't want you making a rash decision."

" _I'm_ emotionally compromised? What about him?" Derek kept his eyes trained on the building as well but nodded towards where Luke had disappeared.

"He's motivated," Prentiss said in a tone that indicated that was all the explanation she was giving right now.

Luke got to the top of the building. The roof was flat, and other than the smaller vents there was only one thing there - a door that led to what he assumed was an attic for fire emergencies. "Prentiss, there's an entrance up here," he spoke into his com. He heard vehicles approaching. He turned to see three suvs racing down the street. "Backup's here."

They parked their vehicles near where the team had abandoned theirs. Emily nodded at Sero as he approached. She pointed and held up two fingers, indicating the number of agents at the back of the building. Sero pointed and sent three agents that way. He and another agent came to stand near Morgan.

"What do we know?" he questioned.

"Ruiz took her four hours ago. It's most likely just him and Stacy in there. Alvez is on the roof. There's an entrance there." She gave him the only information that was needed at the moment.

"Okay, it's your call. What do you want us to do?" Sero deferred to her.

Emily spoke into the com. "We're going in. Alvez follow in thirty."

Derek stood directly in front of the door with the two agents on either side of him. He had never had the need to kick down a door more in his life. Emily motioned for him to do so, They cleared the first couple of rooms with no trouble, both being open play areas. They heard another door slam off to the side. Derek came up on it and saw Sero's agents holding another man down. They recognized him as Joey, one of Ruiz's main security.

Matt was behind JJ with a comforting hand on her back. "Guy was waiting for us." He nodded towards a door that led to the basement entrance. "They got him from behind." Matt pointed to Sero's men that were cuffing the man.

Derek nodded, looking to JJ for confirmation that she was alright. "He just knocked the wind out of me. Then they got him. I'm fine." Derek let his eyes fall, not willing to think about that yet.

The first floor was all clear. "Where?" Sero questioned Emily as JJ pulled her gun back to the front of her body.

Emily pointed to the stairs at the side of the kitchen area. They all quietly followed in succession as they made their way to the top. It was another open area, and, as Emily's head popped up first, she saw Ruiz standing behind Penelope, who was in a chair with her hands tied behind her back. Stacy was loyally standing right next to him. They were staring at the stairs, waiting for the agents. They ascenced in single file, and then, at the landing, they all stood in what looked like a firing line as they kept their guns trained on Ruiz who had a knife near Penelope's throat. It appeared that she had been crying at one point, but she currently just seemed annoyed. She scanned the team in front of her, hoping to see Luke. It was silly. He had to maintain his cover. She was worried about him, and she wanted to see him and make sure he was okay.

"Ruiz, we know what your father did to you. To both of you," Emily amended, as she also addressed Stacy.

"Well then, you know why I ended up in the business I'm in, right? My aunt had no money to raise me, and my mom was gone. Drugs are pretty rampant in Florida." His demeanor was perfectly calm.

"I understand, but that doesn't mean you have to kill anybody," Prentiss said.

"Doesn't it? My father thought he was somebody, killing my mother. He was a coward. I'm the killer. I'm the one to be feared," Ruiz said.

"Your father was a coward. He was a coward for leaving both of you, but you don't have to do this." Prentiss was trying to let them know she understood how they felt.

"Why not? We're going to jail either way, and this one here hurt Stacy's feelings." He tipped his chin to Penelope.

"She's just an agent. She couldn't have done anything to her," JJ calmly informed them.

"That's where you're wrong. She was also making out with Jay something fierce at the club the other day. And Stacy was under the impression that Jay belonged to her," Ruiz said.

"I had no idea about that. We sent an agent in to scope the place out. She had to look authentic and mingle with the crowd. Nothing more," Emily told him.

"Maybe, but she apparently took the liberty of staying the night with him, twice, so yeah, she hurt Stacy's feelings," Ruiz confirmed. "She was at Jay's room on the day he arrived too. Stacy just wanted to give him his outfits, and she had to wait."

"But that's Jay's fault, not hers. Jay is the one who didn't choose you," Emily addressed Stacy.

"No," Stacy spoke for the first time. "Jay didn't know I was available. As long as she's gone, it will be fine." Stacy was clearly trying to convince herself more than anything else.

"But then it's not a choice. He has to make the choice. You have to be chosen." Emily inched forward, still staring at Stacy.

"Look, it doesn't matter. If you don't do what I want, she dies." Ruiz brought it back to the reality of the situation.

"And what exactly do you want?" Derek asked.

"I want to make it to my boat that I have ready to take me out into international waters, and, when I'm there, I will let your girl here go," Ruiz said.

"Why didn't you take off in the first place?" Emily wanted him distracted.

"Because I also want my father. Bring him to me. It's him I want to kill anyway," Ruiz said.

"You never found him?" JJ questioned.

"No, he changed names too many times, left the other family he made not even five years later, and the trail runs cold. He's who we want, and it's no loss to you if we get him."

"No, you said we could kill her, and what about Jay?" Stacy protested.

Ruiz smirked at the agents in front of him. His plan didn't exactly include what Stacy wanted. "Don't worry about it. I've got it all taken care of." Stacy gave him an apprehensive look. "Stace, I've kept you happy for years, did exactly what you wanted. I won't steer you wrong now." It was clear he had been more calculating than his sister. She ran off of emotion and delusion, but he knew exactly why he did what he did. He pushed the knife closer to Penelope's skin, breaking the top layer and letting a small trickle of blood escape. Penelope sniffled but to her credit didn't cry or make a peep.

"Okay, okay." Emily put her hands up, showing that she was holstering her gun slowly. "I'm pulling out my phone. I'm going to request that one of our techs finds out where your father is. Just give me a minute," she assured him.

He squinted but let her do so. She saw Luke behind a doorway, down the hall from Ruiz and Stacy. He could easily sneak up on them, but, if Ruiz got startled, he could cut Penelope's throat before anyone could move. He decided he had to shoot Ruiz, but the other agents were standing in front of him, which meant they were possibly in the line of fire. He made a quick motion with his hand for all of them to duck, and, as they did, he shot Ruiz through the back of the head. Ruiz fell to the ground instantaneously. Stacy started screaming, her hands at her mouth and blood all over her face.

Luke rushed to Penelope, grabbing the knife that had fallen from Ruiz's hand and cutting the rope around her hands, before she fell forward onto him as he knelt in front of her. "It's okay. It's okay," he assured her, as he rubbed her back.

"Oh my God! Thank goodness you're okay," she said to him in between tears.

"Hey, crazy, you're the one that got kidnapped, not me." He tried to lighten the mood as he inspected her face and wiped the tears under her eyes.

"Yeah, but what if they got to you first? They could've killed you already. I didn't know." She gripped him harder as she buried her face in his neck.

As soon as Ruiz was shot, Derek immediately stood up and trained his gun on Stacy, but she was too busy looking over at her brother. He harshly cuffed her and handed her to one of Sero's agents. When he turned around, he saw Penelope practically sitting in Luke's lap sobbing about him being okay, and Luke as put together as ever comforting her as if he hadn't just shot a man dead, as if thirty minutes ago he wasn't ready to cry himself. He saw Luke be the strong person Penelope needed, the one that kept her from getting hysterical when normally she would be quite unhinged at a moment like this. He saw for the first time that Penelope's crush was not a crush, and that whatever it was was very much reciprocated by the man that seemed to have taken his place in more ways than one.

"Don't worry about it. She's still your baby girl." JJ put a hand on Derek's arm.

"I know it's just, this is the first time I've felt like I'm not the best person to keep her safe. I wasn't thinking straight. How could he?" Derek's voice sounded momentarily jealous with a bit of intrigue.

"He needed her to be okay more than the rest of us did, even you." Emily spoke. She and Simmons had come up next to them as they watched the scene in front of them. "He could see the objective, and he wasn't going to let anyone stand in his way, not even you," she said to him.

Derek shook his head, scoffing in disbelief, even though he knew she was right. Someone was better at taking care of his best friend than he was, and, despite the minor jealousy and adjustment that would take, he found himself quite proud of her for waiting for the right guy to come along and also in awe of Luke for being as perfect as he was for her.

Emily went down the steps, the others following, giving the two people hugging a moment to themselves.


	19. Chapter 19

I am still behind on things. I have not responded to anyone's pm's or reviews, I will get to it. Thanks for the reviews, favs and follows. Someone has left reviews on old stories, and yes, I thank you for those too.

This story has two more chapters after this. I will update Summer next. Then I have a new story I might start publishing or possibly a one shot. Manor will be in another week or two. Thanks.

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Luke and Penelope arrived back at her hotel room. Emily let them go while the others took care of things at the scene. When they arrived at her room, the door was open and a couple of the Sero's men were already there taking pictures of the scene and any forensics that they needed for the file. Luke greeted them genuinely, but he took Penelope to the side to lean on the railing outside as they waited for the agents to finish up.

"I'm so sorry," Penelope spoke when she knew they were alone.

"What, what? You did nothing wrong. It was me. I shouldn't have broken protocol like that just because of my jealousy." He wrapped his arms around her as they brought their faces close together to speak quietly.

"Is it bad that I'm still glad you did?" She smiled at him through her tears that were almost dried up.

He smirked at her. "No, no, it's not. It's just I've never done anything like that - putting others in danger. You clouded my judgement, Chica. I'm so mad at myself."

"No, we can't both be mad at ourselves. She obviously saw you before, but we didn't know, and they came after me. They didn't even know I was an agent until they got into my room. That's when he figured he could get us to to bring him his father." Penelope's tears had cleared up.

"She wanted someone for herself. She didn't want to risk the choice anymore. She was going to have him kill you. If they hadn't figured out you were an agent, you'd have been dead on the spot." Luke's voice wavered as he spoke.

"I know, I know. I figured that out when they came in. I thought they would've come for you first. I'm so glad they decided to take me instead." She squeezed him tighter again.

He chuckled. "What an oddly romantic thing to say." He squeezed her back. "But I understand. I'd do anything for you too." She nodded into his neck, the hair there making her giggle and the thought of his beard touching her skin the way it had the night before made her body flush.

She pulled back. "I'm very turned on right now, and it's very weird because I should be traumatized," she said sincerely.

He laughed loudly. "You're insatiable," he teased. "I like it." He placed a kiss to her temple.

The agents started filing out of her hotel room door. "Alvez, we're done. We don't need anything else." Luke nodded in acknowledgement as he took Penelope's hand to lead her into her room.

As she entered, she huffed, seeing a couple of her laptops on the floor. "Well that's annoying. I hope they're not broken." She made her way into the room, picking one of them up and inspecting it.

"You don't have to stay in here tonight if it's too much," Luke assured her.

"Well, I don't have great memories of being kidnapped, but I will always have great memories of this room." She raised her eyes at him. He laughed at her, a big goofy grin now plastered on his face. "But actually I was thinking I could just sleep in your room tonight. I mean if you want me to. Just because, well, Derek and Matt won't be an earshot away." She simpered, causing him to groan.

"There will be no arguments coming from me about that," he assured her, as he came up to her and kissed her passionately.

After a few minutes, she pulled away. "Wait, wait, wait. If you keep going, then I'll keep going, and I want to shower and possibly clean up at some point."

He agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Okay, you go shower while I fix the mess in here, okay?"

She nodded but gave him one last kiss before following the instruction. After fifteen minutes, she emerged from the shower. Her hair was wet, but she had taken a dress into the bathroom with her. She was using a towel to get the excess water out of the wet strands. "Wow, you work quick." She looked around at the completely clean room. Her laptops were all set back up on the desk, and the blankets were on the bed, not made up but at least in the right direction.

"Well, I'd rather not spend time doing this. I'm guessing we don't get the full two weeks down here anymore since the operation is over, and I'd like to get some more quality time with you if I can." He gave her a shy smile as he sat on the edge of the bed.

"I'm happy to do so as well." She smiled at him, feeling stunningly brave, possibly riding the adrenaline high of being saved and all in one piece.

She walked over to him and straddled him. He put his hands on the back of her thighs, settling her knees closer to his hips. She began kissing him, and he let his hands settle on her butt as she put hers up to frame his face. He laid back, and she followed him, kissing him as she loomed over him. She was beginning to push his shirt up his chest when they heard a knock. Both of them groaned. Penelope put her forehead against his. Another knock immediately sounded. "Garcia!" A frantic voice called out.

"Just a second, JJ," she answered. "Crap, now they're going to think something's wrong every time I don't spring to the door," she said to him as she pushed back and let her feet hit the ground. He sat up and took a few deep breaths and stretched his neck, calming his growing arousal. As she stepped towards the door, he casually stood behind her in a familiar way. She beamed, thinking how it felt oddly intimate for him to do so, as if they were greeting guests at their own house.

The other four agents walked in, all of them calming when they saw Penelope with their own eyes. JJ hugged her again, even though she already had before they left the scene. "I just wanted to get everyone up to speed," Emily addressed the team. "We're heading down to the local field office to help with Stacy's interrogation. Then we'll be leaving tomorrow. Alvez, you're officially not undercover anymore, so I hope that helps." Emily gave him a small smile.

He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "Uh, yeah, it will be nice to not have to dry hump tables tonight," he said as seriously as he could.

The others all gave a small chuckle when they heard his words. "You can stay here with Garcia while we're gone. There shouldn't be anymore trouble," she said, before pulling Penelope in for a hug and walking out of the door.

Simmons also gave Penelope a hug before following suit. JJ smiled at them both before following Matt out the door. Derek took a step further into the room, "Look, Alvez-"

"You don't need to say anything." He uncrossed his arms, letting them hang to his sides and watching as Derek blew out a breath.

Derek's phone started ringing. He pulled it out. "Uh, it's Savannah. I'll talk to you later." He gave Penelope a quick hug and kiss before leaving.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten. Kidnappers are not prone to being thoughtful," Penelope joked, as she grabbed her shoes. "And I ate all those cherries." Penelope sighed as she gestured to the basket that was turned upright but that clearly had been victim to the people who decided to destroy her room to look for information.

"Well, at least you enjoyed them. Glad you at least liked something I did, even if I didn't get a thank you." Luke scoffed but smiled at her.

"Wait, those were from you?"

"Uh, yeah. Who else would they be from, Garcia?" He crossed his arms over his chest again as he turned to her more sternly.

Penelope had the good grace to look sheepish. "Honestly, I thought they were from my dancing partner guy."

"You knew him before that?" Luke narrowed his eyes.

"The first night I went down to the bar, I saw him there, and, before that, I met him on my way to your room to set up the cameras." Penelope rolled her eyes at his subdued jealousy. "Just let it go. Clearly he and I made instant friends, but I just didn't think anyone else knew my drink order, except the bartender who was older and clearly didn't care about anyone's anything or the- well, now I'm thinking I should've had one of the boys check the basket because apparently it could've been from Stacy, had she chosen to follow me after that first day."

Luke watched Penelope shrug. "Well, it was from me. I give you things." Penelope tried not to giggle as she went to retrieve her belongings. "Let's get some food." He watched her grab her small purse before speaking. "Shouldn't you bring all your clothes. You are staying in my room tonight, right?" His eyes were mischievous as he looked her up and down.

"You want me to pack all my clothes right now?" Her voice rose in surprise.

"You're right. You won't need clothes." He stepped closer to her.

She put a hand on his chest. "Okay, okay, mister, I'll leave the rest of my stuff here, but I'll throw all my bathroom stuff and _some_ clothes in a bag. I'll pack up the rest tomorrow before we leave. That reminds me, I wonder if Emily will let me do some shopping before we go. I need to get some stuff from this store I found," she informed him as she put some things in her bag.

"I might regret this, especially since I want to take you to my room and lock you in there, but we can get food and then go to the store so you don't have to worry about it." Luke was watching her throw things towards her bag, and he grabbed a few of them and started folding them into compact squares, a habit left over from the Army.

"You will _not_ regret it. Both of my dresses from the past two days were from there." She winked at him as his eyes light up.

"Yeah, let's go to that store. Let's forget the food and just go there," he said in a serious and rushed tone as he threw the last few garments in the bag, haphazardly.

She laughed. "I still want food, but don't worry. It'll be worth the wait."

"Yeah, most things involving you are. I think I figured that out already." He gave her a goofy grin as she handed him her bag to carry.

….

A vegan taco and fruit smoothie later, they came upon the store she was so excited about. As soon as he saw the glittery sign outside and the shine coming from the inside, he let out a chuckle. "This makes so much sense now." He opened his mouth wide as he looked between her happy face and the store. He brought their clasped hands up to his mouth, placing a kiss on the back of hers.

"Oh, you liked those dresses." She leaned into him to give him a small kiss, which quickly turned into a much longer one.

"So I see the dresses worked then, ma jolie fille," Marc said from the doorway of the shop that he was standing in.

"Oui très bien!" she responded before walking into the store with Luke at her side.

"Marc, this is Luke. Luke, this is my new best friend, Marc. He picked out the dresses for me." She was beaming at Luke as she swung their clasped hands slightly before turning back to Marc. "Which reminds me, that first one I tried on, I'm going to buy that for work." Marc trotted off to pick that up, as well as a few other things she might like.

"You're going to wear one of these dresses to work?" Luke's eyes were big as he asked.

"Not all of the outfits here are for the same types of occasions." She shook her head at him.

Marc walked back up with an armful of glittery headbands, big necklaces, and dresses. "We have work to do. You can take a seat over there. I'll bring you a water," he instructed Luke as he gently pushed Penelope towards the dressing room.

Luke laughed and took a seat, happier than he'd ever been in a dress shop in his life. He watched Marc hand her a bunch more things around the curtain, but Marc came back over to him. "So the feeling was mutual then?"

Luke chuckled. "I should've just come to you and gotten the inside track."

"I told her she couldn't blush like she had if it was all one-sided," Marc informed him with a smirk.

"I don't know how she could think it was. I think I've shown my hand a few too many times, but apparently we're both a bit hard-headed," Luke conceded.

"Did my dresses help?"

Luke chuckled. "I wish I could say I got courageous all on my own, but I'll say I saw her and… well I figured that night, or both nights, were very much… good nights to take a risk."

"Happy to help."

"I'm surprised she told anyone. I was under the impression she was keeping it to herself."

"I had to bribe her with a bracelet."

"Oh, that makes sense."

Marc smirked at him. "She felt safe telling a stranger that was also her new best friend, but I could tell she was in love. No way she wasn't."

"In love?" Luke asked genuinely.

"Oh no!" Marc exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. "Are you going to pretend that's not what it is?"

"Well I- we- I just got to kiss her a few days ago."

"Hmm, and I'm sure you regret taking that much time, no?"

"Well, yes."

"So maybe don't make the same the mistake again."

"I can't just-"

"Oh no, Honey, I'm not saying go marry the girl today. I'm saying don't pretend you don't already know what it is. Take the time to do it right, but… you know it's right."

Luke turned his gaze from Marc to the floor in front of him as he contemplated. "Yeah, you're right. Damn, you are correct," Luke said in awe.

Marc smirked and then pushed off of one foot to make his way to Penelope who was coming out of the dressing room.

Luke watched from afar as Marc helped Penelope match some earrings to another bracelet she spotted that went well with the skirt she had just tried on. Luke sighed and then smiled as he watched her animatedly wave her hands with glee as Marc showed her another patterned dress. Maybe it was too soon to flat out confess deep devoted love, but, if Penelope's new best friend was as smart as he seemed to be, there wasn't much that anyone could do to stop it. Their relationship was going to be a long winding tale to tell. That he knew. He smirked as he watched Penelope wink at him before she was ushered back into the fitting room. Who would want to stop it anyway? Entropy was going to be his new favorite pastime.

* * *

Thanks to BookDragon2013 for loving that candy shop scene as much as me and for going on this journey because we both enjoy it so much.


	20. Chapter 20

Yesterday was a terrible day. Today is not quite as terrible. I posted that new fic yesterday so hopefully you all like it. I am not sure if I am watching the season premier tonight. Maybe. We'll see. Thanks for everything. There is only one more chapter of this to come.

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"You didn't have to pay for my stuff! It costs too much. Let me pay you back. It's not like I do anything with my money anyway." Penelope was strolling next to Luke on their way back to his room. Only a couple small bags in her hands, the other not so small bags were spread between his two hands.

"I think I'm going to enjoy most of this stuff more than you are so it's only fair," he told her as they rounded the corner of the hotel. "Plus, you told me you hated flowers."

"Well I guess you've got a poi-"

"Princess, you're alright!" Raul gave her a hug that she returned after the initial shock wore off. "My brother, he told me that you were kidnapped, and that the FBI were looking for me! I had no idea what happened!"

"I'm so sorry about that, Ra. I work for the FBI, and, yes, I was kidnapped, but it was brief. Uh, no big deal." She gave him a sheepish smile.

His brow furrowed in disbelief. "Ay, so you were- and the- but-"

"It's a long story, but I'm sorry if I worried you or your brother. I hope we didn't ruin his wedding week," she said apologetically.

"No, no." He waved a dismissive hand. "He'll probably just tell the story every anniversary about how I was almost a criminal." He glanced towards Luke who was giving the guy a curious once over.

Penelope looked between the two of them. "Uh, uh, so I heard you had a very good alibi anyway. You found a special lady?" Penelope questioned.

"Yes, actually, and I think I have you to thank for it. Her name is Renee. She says she knows you. She came by looking for you last night. I saw her so lost ,and I asked her what she was trying to find, and she said Elsa!" He laughed. "So I led her to your door, but-uh- you- uh, sounded busy."

Penelope's face turned red. "Oh my goodness! That's embarrassing," she muttered.

"No worries. She was about to knock on your door, and then she quickly stopped herself, grabbed my hand, and led me back to the bar downstairs. We had one more drink, and then we decided to go have some fun ourselves." He shrugged at her.

Penelope laughed. "Well, I'm glad I could be of service."

He gave her a wide smile before turning to Luke. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but are you the dancer that Renee was telling me was probably the one in there last night?" Raul asked him.

Luke glanced down at the ground, a small quirk to his lip. "Sort of. I'm FBI as well. It was a cover," he told the seemingly harmless man.

"Ah, well, this is an interesting job you two have." He nodded at them. "Here." He handed Penelope a piece of paper. "This is Renee's number. She wanted to keep in touch. I don't know if you're allowed, but, if not, I think she'll understand." He smiled.

"Thanks, Ra. I'll give her a text when I can." She smiled back at him.

He nodded at her, tipping his hat in the way she came to find quite adorable, now that she knew his personality. "Well, I am supposed to go pick up the lovely lady now, so I will tell her. Nice to see you are safe, Princess." He smiled as he excused himself.

Penelope and Luke walked the last few steps towards his door. "Are there any men that don't automatically give you wonderful nicknames?" Luke asked as he waited for her to unlock the door. He followed her through the door, stuffing the bags through the narrow opening.

She stuck her chin up in the air. "Well, I'm very charming."

As they entered the room, he set all the bags on the floor, before acknowledging her last statement. "Well, yes, you are, very charming." He came up behind her as she set her purse down on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, letting his hands trail up her abdomen to her breasts and gently squeezing them as he kissed her neck.

She let out a satisfied sigh. "I guess you're charming sometimes too." She bit her lip as she closed her eyes, letting her head fall to the side. He smiled into the kiss he was placing on her shoulder before he nipped at the skin that was there.

He let his hands come up to her chest and then slid them underneath her dress and bra, letting his fingers lightly run over her hardened nipples. He pulled the dress down and then the cups of her bra, leaving her chest exposed before turning her around and kissing her. She brought her hands up around his neck, pressing her chest against his while his hands ghosted over her nipples again. Then he pushed her backwards to to the bed. Her back hit the mattress, and he crawled over her as she pushed herself up the bed. His lips found her left nipple, and she moaned as first his tongue ran over it and then his beard as he moved down her body. He lifted the hem of her dress to bring it over her head. She leaned up, supporting her body with her hands so he could unhook her bra, which he threw to the side of the bed.

"Hey, how do I always end up more naked than you?" She looked at his fully clothed body when she only had on her underwear and heels.

"I would never apologize for such things because it would be insincere." He let his lips run up her body again. Pausing at the side of her stomach to kiss her, he made her squirm.

"Can you at least take off my-" she began.

"Underwear? No problem." He swiftly dragged the fabric down her legs, letting it fall to the ground as well.

"I was going to say shoes," she murmured until she felt his tongue on her clitorus and gasped. "Okay, never mind, underwear is fine."

He kissed her there gently over and over again, and then, as she was on the edge, he flicked his tongue against her until she gripped his hair roughly, his name falling from her lips.

"That wasn't quite a scream," he said to her as he moved up her body again.

She started pushing up his shirt. "I'm supposed to make you scream too. Don't forget." He lifted the shirt over his head as she sat up and started undoing his pants. She kissed his chest as she pushed his underwear and pants down his hips. He moved off the bed to push them off all the way. She kicked off her heels before he climbed back on top of her.

She tried to push him back. Her plan was to lick him like there was no tomorrow, but he pinned her down. "I want to fuck you first. We have all night for that, and we don't have to be quiet."

"I know. That's the best part." She laid back.

"Is that right?" He was rubbing his cock over her folds, not yet putting it in, just teasing her.

She tried to maintain her composure, but she almost lost her cool. "Hmm hmm."

"So this isn't the best part?" He leaned down to kiss her again.

"Mmmhmm."

"And not this either?" He ran his tongue over her nipple.

"Mmmhmmm."

"So what about this?" He pushed into her, but only slightly. She whined wanting him to be all the way in, but he pulled back as soon as she tried to lift her hips.

"You said it's not even the best part." He was torturing her, and he knew it and was enjoying it immensely. He was hovering above her, not letting her move, not giving her anything more.

"Okay, okay. It's all the best part. Just do me." She tried to sound irritated, but it came out more like begging.

He gave her a smirk, leaning down to kiss her and thrust into her, making her back arch as he did so. She moaned as he started to move inside of her. "Why weren't we doing this before again?" he asked breathily.

"Because we are both incredibly stupid," she replied as she gasped and then took a deep breath. "Luke, I'm really happy."

He chuckled at her. "Well, yeah." His smile was wide as he still pumped into her.

She dug her nails further into his chest where she'd kept her hands ever since she felt him enter her. "No. I mean, I'm happy." She tried to give him serious eye contact, but she knew it was a ridiculous time to do so. She had no idea what possessed her to say such a thing.

His eyes travelled her face up and down. He had slowed his hips as he did so. "I know what you mean. I am too." He'd been holding himself up on his hands, but he came down to his forearms, suddenly wanting to be as close to her as possible.

She felt his chest on hers and let her hands come up to his hair, bringing his mouth to hers. What had been fucking just a moment prior became something else entirely. The air around them changed, and the challenge of making each other scream in pleasure was now a mutual movement of emotion. They didn't break the kiss, and they kept each other close. Luke only moved one hand to come down to her thigh to angle himself and get leverage. After a few more moments, she started to moan into his mouth. He didn't pull away, instead drinking her vocalizations in as if they satiated his thirst. He waited a few more moments before letting himself go. He didn't need to move anymore physically. What happened emotionally in that moment was enough to push him to the point from which he couldn't come back, even if he wanted to. They continued to kiss, not letting go of each other until they felt like they'd pushed enough emotion out of their bodies through their kisses.

"That's not exactly what I expected to happen when we were finally really alone," Luke said as he fell to his side, turning her with him but still holding her close.

She shyly dipped her head, her eyes falling to his chest. "I-I know. I didn't mean to-"

He shushed her and placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'm not complaining at all. Quite the opposite in fact." He squeezed his arms tighter that were already circled around her.

She nodded against his chin. "So when we leave tomorrow, we're going to be- well, we're going to be back to work soon," Penelope said.

"I think Emily will probably make us take some time," he answered back.

"True, and what does that- I- What does that look like?" She put her bottom lip in between her teeth.

"Well, that looks like you spending all of your time at my house, never leaving until they drag us back in for a case," he answered her, putting his hand under her chin and bringing her lips back up to his for a chaste kiss.

She smiled at him. "Okay." She was pleased with what he said, but she had a little bit of question in her voice still.

Luke brought his hand up to her hair. The bangs that had fallen in front of her eyes, he pushed to the side. "And after that, I think it will be pretty easy to fall deeply, madly in love with you, and I can't imagine that I would ever be able to stop it, even if I wanted to."

Her sight had fallen to his lips as he spoke, but, after the words came out, she met his eyes with hers. "I think I feel the same way. I'm not sure what to do without you, but just yesterday I didn't even have you."

"That's where you're wrong. I think you've had me for as long as I can remember."

"I can't remember not being yours," she answered back sincerely.

Luke pushed her back again, kissing her soundly. She pulled away, biting her lip, a shy gleam in her eyes. "As much as I love all this sweetness, I still really want to try some things that I saw you do out on that stage." Her tone was shy but serious.

He laughed. "Oh yeah, and what is that? I was really hoping to take a break from the routines. I need to rest my dancing muscles." He let his upper body twist off of her but kept their legs touching.

"I don't need a lap dance." She paused, pondering for a moment. "Well, not today anyway. What I'd like is umm-" She suddenly halted her words. Somehow her brain caught up to her mouth, and she blushed.

He had put his elbow down on the bed, laying his head on his hand as she talked and wondering where this was going. "I'll give you anything you want."

"Well, you know how you, uh- you know how you, uh- when the- when you." She saw his grin, half curious and half self satisfied. She rolled her eyes in jest, before gathering her courage. "When you were standing over that woman, and you mimicked..."

"You want me to do that?" He shot up, now balancing himself on his hand. His question was equally lust filled and amazed.

She nodded at him, and his eyes darkening with desire. He didn't need anymore time to recover. Her request made him ready immediately. He began kissing her chest, her side, her stomach, then finding his way back to her nipples just to make her moan again, then to her neck and her lips. "Luke, just do it." Her voice was breathy. If he thought he needed to turn her on more, he was wrong, although it did make her want to please him even more than she did just a moment prior.

He smirked at her, which would've irritated her in almost any other instance, but in this one she wanted him to enjoy the hell out of it, so she could get the satisfaction of making him so satisfied. His nostrils were flaring as he moved up her body, his legs on either side of her. He stared down at her, his erection near her chest. He grabbed both of her boobs and pushed them together stroking himself with her cleavage.

After a few strokes, she brought her hands up to replace his, and he sat up straighter, thrusting a few more times. He let his thumbs run over her nipples, making her bite her lip. He was unhinged and moaning. The visual of it and the look on her face made him realize this was not going to last long. He moved further up, pressing the tip of his erection to her lips and parting them with it. "I'm going to fuck your mouth." He saw her eyes light up with lust, and that was all the encouragement he needed. He moved forward to his hands, letting himself go deeper but still attempting to be gentle.

He felt her tongue move around him as he was already trying to adjust to the warmth and wetness of her mouth. He grabbed a fistful of the comforter in his hand, much like he'd seen her do. He couldn't contain it anymore. He started to pulse his hips up and down out of her lips just as he'd done on stage. He supported himself on his hands, letting just his hips move. He could see her underneath him, he could see himself disappear into her lips, and he had to use everything in him not to come yet, still wanting to give her what she had wanted.

His mind wandered to all the different ways they could do this - her on her knees, her riding his face while she took him in her mouth at the same time. He felt himself about to come, and he pulsed into her harder. She gagged, and he almost pulled back, but he heard her whine and felt her hand come to his hip to keep him in place. That was the last straw. He started to come, screaming her name. His body went hot. His eyes closed. His voice didn't sound like his own, and, when his hips finally came to a stop, he felt her swirl her tongue one last time before swallowing the rest of him. He felt himself let out what he could only describe as a whimper. Taking a moment to push himself off of her, flipping over onto the mattress, and putting his hand to his forehead, he tried to push his brain back in so he could begin to comprehend what the hell just happened.

She turned to him with lust filled eyes and then started kissing his chest, running her hands over his abs because she just wanted to touch him. He finally caught his breath, and he looked down at her, putting his hand in her hair. She trailed a few kisses up his body before landing on his mouth. He lifted his head to give her a deeper kiss, until they both pulled away. "So you did scream my name after all," Penelope said mischievously.

He let out a chuckle, wrapping his arm behind her to bring her closer. "Is that all you did that for, to win?"

"Would it surprise you if I did?"

He laughed and kissed her forehead. "I'm pretty sure all you're ever going to do is surprise me."

She nodded, giving him another kiss. "I get to sit on your face now, right?"

He smiled. "Yes, please."


	21. Chapter 21

Very bittersweet to give you all the finale of this one. I know I a lot of my fics have finished recently and I only have a couple more going. I have no plans for more right now since everything is so hectic in my life. But I hope that you enjoy the fics I still have going. As I've said before, even if a story has been completed for a while, I will always love and read any review you give so no hesitations on that. Thank you to everyone who followed, faved, or reviews anything, including guests that I can't thank individually.

* * *

Both Luke and Penelope reluctantly left their hotel room. They were already late packing her things. They skipped breakfast with the others in order to pack up the rest of her stuff. They didn't have enough time to do both, thanks to a shared shower incident. And Luke knew he needed to see Jonny's wife. If he could finally explain this and give her some closure, he would. He went to the club to get the money from Matty, who was apparently in charge since Joey, Ruiz, and Stacy weren't available.

Luke walked in, holding Penelope's hand. Matty was moving some cases of beer from behind the bar when he saw them approach. "Well, well well, I must say I never thought that undercovers really were so undercover. So maybe all of my favorite movies aren't completely unrealistic." Matty smiled at Luke and leaned his elbow on the edge of the bar.

"Yeah, Man. I don't like lying to the people that… well, that are genuine with me, but unfortunately it is part of the job description."

"To be honest, you make a lot more sense now. Not that everyone around here is skeezy, but enough of us are. And even those of us who aren't, well, we're still at least a little fucked in the head. That didn't seem to be the case with you." Matty finally nodded at Penelope, who was on Luke's right a little behind him.

"Right, uh, Matty, this is my girlfriend, Penelope. She also works for the FBI in case you were wondering."

Matty tipped his head at her. "Nice to meet you, and also that makes sense since I have literally never seen you take advantage of the situation ever. Even if you'd flirt, it was for show, and then you'd busy yourself with, I'm assuming, pretending to get drunk."

"That's accurate." Luke scratched at the back of his head. "Look, man. I know you've already gotten a ton of questions from all of our lovely associates, but I was wondering if you knew if Ruiz really did keep that cash for Jonny's wife?"

Matty nodded and started walking towards the club's office. "Yeah, he did. He really did want her to have it. He knew it wasn't her fault, and he also knew she would be a single mother. He had a bit of a soft spot for that sort of thing. I now know the guy also was responsible for making her a single mother, but he did have an odd sense of morality." Matty had led them into the office and was turning the dial on a small safe.

"Yeah, I know he truly did see the difference between business, and, well, crime. I don't think he wanted to be a bad guy, but it was just easy to be. It was still his choice. He ran successful businesses. I know these places are in the black, even without any drug money. It was something we checked thoroughly. He didn't use the drug money to keep these places afloat. He definitely used it for his personal property, but he could've chosen to be a straightforward business owner." Luke informed Matty, and he took the manila envelope from him.

"Yeah, I figured. I never really saw that stuff coming through here. I knew about the rumors, but we all did. I don't think anyone that's ever worked here was a part of it except some of the security guys, and, even then, I think they were a part of it beforehand, and he kept them nearby to make sure no one was onto anything." Matty shrugged.

"That makes sense. Everyone else always checked out. Even most of the strippers with a few arrests for some other things, it was clear they were just a mess and not some big crime bosses." Penelope interjected.

"Yeah, well, if he's dead, and Stacy is in jail, how is anything going to keep going? We can stay open for the next few weeks, but, once things need to get approved, and payroll accounts need to be funded again, we'll be out of luck," Matty expressed.

"What about Ruiz's wife? They're not actually divorced yet. Unless he changed his will already, she would automatically become the owner," Luke told him.

Matty grinned. "Yeah, Luisa… yeah, I basically took my own life in my hands when I told her to leave him. I was scared she might tell him what I said, but she needed to hear it. She's too good for that lifestyle."

"You like her?" Penelope inquired with a smile.

Matty shrugged, but the embarrassed smile on his face gave it away. "Yeah, always did. Also knew that was not a road to go down since I could've been killed on sight, but hey, maybe if she's my boss, I can actually ask her out without worrying if I was going to get a tattoo on my ass."

"They told you about that when they questioned you?" Luke inquired since he hadn't caught up with any of his or Sero's team.

"Yeah, they asked if I could say for sure whether the guys had those tattoos or spoke about getting them done. Obviously they hadn't. A lot of ladies over the years could've been witness to that too, but I know there wasn't a connection to Stacy yet. I get that you had to keep that quiet and not release the details to the general public, but I probably could've made that connection years ago for you. Stacy used to draw those designs a lot when she was sitting around here bored. She even had a few framed at her apartment. I had seen them when I went to pick some costumes up from her once when she had the flu and couldn't make it in." Matty gave Luke a side smile.

"I wish I could've asked a lot of you a lot of things. But at the times, the murders weren't the prime instigator for the undercover operation. They were now, but we assumed that they were the inevitable consequences of the drug business." Luke returned the smile.

Matty nodded. "Well, I hope you are able to give Jonny's wife some peace, and maybe she can start a college fund or something."

"Right." Luke held up the envelope. "I gotta get going so we can make it over there before we have to get on our jet."

"You got a jet? Of course, you do." Matty scoffed.

Luke smiled. "It was nice to see you again, Matty. Really. And I hope that everything works out. Call me if you need anything." Penelope pulled out one of Luke's cards from her purse and handed it to Luke who took it and handed it to Matty.

Matty scanned it briefly. "Hopefully I won't need the FBI's help for anything ever again, but it is Miami so you never know. Hey take care- uh- Luke." Matty read the name off the card. "Gee, that's going to be an adjustment."

Luke chuckled and grabbed Penelope's hand. He gave Matty an almost salute, and then he led Penelope through the club and out the door into the bright Miami sun.

"So we only have an hour and a half. Can we make it over to her house?" Penelope questioned.

"Yeah, they live not even a mile from here." Luke and Penelope got in the car that Sero had given him to use.

"You think she'll be happy or sad? I mean, sad that her husband did die in vain in a way since it was just the delusion of some random girl that made it come to pass?"

"I don't know, but there has to be some peace in knowing that who she thought Jonny was is exactly who he actually was. Even if the reasoning is hard to deal with, at least she knows he wasn't involved in anything nefarious. He definitely didn't bring it on himself."

"Hopefully that's something." Penelope sighed as they pulled up in front of a small cottage. "Do you want me to-"

"Yes, come with me. You look too innocent for people to slam a door in your face." Luke got out and opened her door.

"Thanks. I think." Penelope shrugged.

They walked up the path, and Luke knocked. They heard the door being unlocked, and they waited momentarily for the woman to appear on the other side. The screen door was still shut, but they saw her search for the memory in her head. "Jay? Is that-"

"Yes, hi, Cristela. I know it's been years, but I have something important to tell you. Do you mind if we talk for a couple minutes?" He saw her seem apprehensive, but she smiled at him and then at Penelope who was on the step behind him. "This is my girlfriend, Penelope. She is sort of part of the explanation as well."

Penelope smiled. "I promise it's nothing bad," she assured the woman.

Cristela opened the screen. "Come in. Rico is on a playdate." She showed them to the living room and gestured for them to take a seat on the couch. "What is it? I mean all these years later?"

Luke cleared his throat. "Well, first, my name isn't Jay. It's actually Luke, and I work for the FBI." He grabbed his badge from his pocket and showed her. He saw her wide shocked eyes, but he spoke again before she could ask. "I was undercover initially to find a fugitive that had ties to Ruiz, but then it transitioned into taking out the drug smuggling. I had to go back under cover the past couple weeks because there was another murder and - look, all you really need to know is that Jonny was never in with the drugs, nor did he ever cheat on you. He was clean. Completely. He was only killed because of Ruiz and Stacy. He rejected Stacy and she..." Luke paused because this was not easy to hear. "Ruiz was her half brother, and he did something for her to make her happy since their childhoods were anything but. He protected her because their father never did. While some murders were Ruiz' doing for the sake of the drugs, some were because Stacy couldn't get what she wanted. Like Craig, he was gay and had a boyfriend, Jonny was married and loyal. I wish there was a better reason, but there isn't. It was just the result of a woman who was too delusional to know up from down. I'm sorry that I can't bring him back."

Cristela had a few silent tears coming down her face. "I knew that made no sense. I knew Jonny. I knew he wasn't like that. But I thought maybe I was just one of those sad stories from those news shows that the wife never knew anything, and the neighbors swore it would never be that guy. I just-" She stopped when she felt a hiccup coming on.

Penelope sat forward. "He was exactly who you thought he was. You must've taken the time to forgive him. Otherwise you wouldn't have his picture up everywhere, but now you know that you never had to."

Luke grabbed Penelope's hand in his and smiled at her before turning back to the woman in front of him. "This is the money he earned. Ruiz kept it for you. I know that sounds nutty, but most of the people he hurt, it wasn't personal. Some weren't even his choice. He was raised by a single mother, and you were never anyone's enemy. Before you say no, this wasn't a favor or anything. It really was Jonny's money, and, since it really was his, and he really was yours, please just take it. For Rico or yourself. Whatever it may be."

Cristela slowly held a hand out for Luke to place the envelope there. "I will use it for Rico. He wanted to play soccer, but I couldn't budget in the fees."

"There's enough for that and then some. And just so you know, the guys, the dancers, they were never involved either. So if any of them offered help, just know that it was and it would be sincere if you ever choose to reach out to them." Luke nodded at her, and she nodded back. "We have to go. We have to get back to D.C., but I hope everything works out for you and Rico."

Cristela stood up when they did. She reached forward to give Luke a hug. "Thanks, I appreciate knowing the truth." She walked them to the door. "Just so you know Jonny knew you were different. He said, even though he loved the other guys too, that he could imagine that you were someone he'd care to keep in touch with once he left."

Luke smiled at her from the porch, but Penelope spoke for him. "Luke said that exact thing. Jonny was obviously a very good guy. I hope you and Rico always remember that."

Cristeal smiled at them, and they waved goodbye as they walked down the path to get in the car.

….

They made it to the jet right on time. They had discussed how they didn't want the others to be able to blame any more professional mishaps on their personal choices. So they made sure to be punctual.

"Well, you two look happy." Emily smirked at them as they boarded. She closed the file in her hand that she had been reading.

Luke shook his head, mouth closed, containing his smirk as much as he could, but Penelope turned a light shade of red as everyone on board inspected both of them with smirks on their faces.

"This is not going to be a thing, is it?" Penelope asked after she regained some composure.

"Oh, of course not. We're going to be as professional as you always are." JJ had a seemingly innocent look on her face, but there was mischief behind it.

Penelope rolled her eyes and took a seat as far away from the others as possible. This time, not because she was worried, but because she wanted to be away from prying eyes.

"Did you get anything out of Stacy?" Luke asked as he leaned against the side of the plane, making conversation with the four agents seated around the small table.

"Actually, yes. She wasn't exactly Fort Knox. She confessed to tattooing the guys with her flower design," JJ told him.

"Any good reason why she had Ruiz kill only at certain times during the year?" Luke asked.

Simmons held up his hand counting off on his fingers. "Valentines, the spring break annual speed dating at the Ultra Lounge, and Christmas."

Luke's face turned in amusement. "Well, okay. The Ultra Lounge, huh? That place is gross, but I guess I could see it." He scanned the side of the plane wondering where her logic came from. "And anything on the drugs?"

Emily gave a satisfied scoff. "Sero has enough info to stop his entire trade. I don't think she knew everything, but she knew enough."

"Why did she confess to all this? Did she get a deal?" Luke's brow was furrowed as he asked them.

"Yup, she admits to being an accessory. She won't get actual murder charges," Derek answered Luke's question.

"Even though she was the one that seemed to orchestrate the kills, she wasn't the one who carried them out. I guess that's," he paused, "something. I'm assuming Sero's going to be working with the DEA on this, but any word on the local cops? Anyone suddenly very upset that the drug money isn't going to be coming in soon?"

"No clue. but that old boss of yours is very thorough and motivated. I think he's going to be looking into that. Stacy didn't mention anyone directly, but she might not have ever seen them." JJ shrugged.

Luke nodded at her. "I know this is weird to say, but I hope that they find a way to keep his clubs open. His businesses provide a lot of jobs down there, and, to be honest, it really wasn't a bad place to work." Luke tried not to chuckle, but he did make the rest of them giggle. "Any word on their father? I mean he's the whole reason this happened. I can't imagine he's really a ghost if these two found each other," Luke said contemplatively.

"I told Sero I could have Garcia track him, but he said it wasn't necessary," Prentiss told him.

"Alvez is right though. How did these two figure out they were brother and sister? If their father was dust in the wind and all…" Derek trailed off.

They heard Penelope's voice from a few rows back. "Stacy tried to search for her father a few years ago and found his picture in the paper as a possible suspect for the murder of Ruiz's mom. So she sought him out, told him her whole story, and viola. A very odd sibling dynamic was born."

"Should've known." Matt smiled at the people near him. "How long did that take?" he called back to her.

"I've been looking ever since Emily said Sero didn't find it necessary," she called out.

They all laughed at her. "A whole minute? Are you tired or something, Garcia?" JJ asked.

"I found the email she wrote to him easy, but I had to read the whole thing," she explained.

Luke shook his head, a happy smile on his face. "Well, I am relieved that my cover is blown. I don't think I could've done that for months like I did the first time around. I'm older, and it's a lot of cardio." The four agents in front of him broke out into laughter. "I'm serious. Did you two see any of those routines? It's not easy."

JJ was still giggling as she answered. "We saw some of them, but we didn't see any of yours."

"Although, we did hear that you got a tremendous amount of applause," Prentiss teased.

"So Alvez has dance moves then, huh?" Derek was watching his face as he tried to contain an embarrassed laugh.

"Even if I did, it's the end of an era. I don't think there will ever be a need to do that again."

"Hey, how did you get chosen for that assignment in the first place? They had to make sure you could dance, didn't they?" Simmons asked.

"Oh my God! What about at the club? Did you have to audition?" JJ was suddenly very curious as she leaned forward on the table.

Luke laughed and wagged two fingers at her. "I will never answer that." He walked away from the four people now teasing him and trying to negotiate an answer from him.

Luke ignored them as he joined Penelope. "Hey, handsome boyfriend of mine," she greeted as he sat down.

"Hey, Carina. What are you doing here?" He nudged her shoulder with his, leering at her.

"Can you tell _me_ if you auditioned?" she quizzed with a smirk.

He let his mouth open wide as he attempted to keep from laughing. "How about I show you?" he whispered in her ear.

She shivered after feeling his breath on her neck. "I'm going to be in so much pain this next week, aren't I?" she asked.

He looked at her, affronted. "You mean you're not already?" He lifted his eyebrows at her.

She turned red again shaking her head. "I guess I meant even more pain. I'm very sore, and this is going to be a rough couple weeks for certain parts of me."

He nodded his head. "Count on it."

They spent the rest of the trip flirting and mostly ignoring the taunts of the other people on board, until Penelope finally fell asleep on Luke's shoulder. When they arrived, everyone deplaned as Luke gently woke her up. "Come on, Hermosa. We're here.

She lifted her head, her face pouty from sleep. He couldn't help it. He reached over and kissed her. "Hey, I thought we said not in front of the kids," she mumbled.

He laughed at her. "Yeah, well, no one waited for us. I have the keys to the other SUV. I assume the four of them are going back in the other car."

She nodded and stretched as he got up and grabbed their bags, heading down the stairs of the plane with Penelope close behind him. They walked to the SUV next to the one that was already running. Luke quickly put their bags in the back of it. Penelope was behind him, still stretching from the plane ride. She stopped when she saw Derek standing in front of her after the other SUV took off. "You coming with us, Eyebrows?" she questioned happily.

"No, actually I'm heading right back out. I promised Savannah I'd get home as soon as I could. Also, I don't have to write any of those annoying reports anymore, so I just get to leave."

"Yeah, on a commercial flight. Enjoy that, Hot Stuff," Penelope teased.

He gave an inaudible chuckle. "Yeah, it is an adjustment, but at least Savannah bought me a first class ticket."

Penelope giggled. "Derek 'Chocolate Thunder' Morgan, as I live and breathe, you are a kept man." She scrunched her face at him. She already knew that, but every once in a while it astonished her that he really settled down.

"Hey, I haven't been clubbing all that much. Not since that whole wedding deal. Sweetness, this is not news." He beamed at her.

"But it will never get old, unlike you." She poked him in the chest.

"Okay, whatever, crazy girl." Luke had shut the door and was leaning on the back of the car listening to their banter, when Derek turned to him. "Look, Alvez-"

"I already said, don't worry about it. Heat of the moment and all that." Luke gave him a friendly nod.

Derek gave a gracious nod back but spoke anyway. "Still, I didn't keep my cool, and you did, and for all I know that saved my Baby Girl's life. Probably, JJ's too, so- And now we know that Stacy had already seen Penelope and that was because I said we should have cameras in your room. It wasn't even you that-" Derek nervously adjusted his hand on the strap of his bag. "Look, I don't mean anything by what I've said or done. I guess I just didn't realize what was happening here." He pointed in between the two people in front of him. "But I think it's a good thing."

Penelope took a step towards him and gave him a long hug. He held onto her for a few moments, closing his eyes and putting his head against hers. She gave another squeeze to which he gave a kiss to her temple before letting her go. "I'm fine, Derek. You really don't have to worry about me. It honestly wasn't all that terrifying. They were foolish, and I know, if they had wanted me dead, I would've been already. I knew you all would save me," she assured him.

"Yeah, I know." His eyes darted between the two of them. "Well I guess I should go check in for my flight. I'll always be here for you. You know that, right?" He took his hand off the strap of the bag that was over his shoulder, bringing it to her cheek.

"I know that, Derek," she said to him with a serious face and voice.

He winked at her, knowing she could tell exactly what he was thinking. "I love you so much. I always will." He stepped back from her.

"I know." She widened her eyes at him, as if he were stupid, her momentary seriousness gone.

He nodded to Luke again, a small smile on his face, and he let his hand fall from her face. Then he turned to head towards the plane that would take him home to his family.

"You sure you're alright?" Luke asked as he put ran his hands over her arms. She'd stayed glued to the spot she was in, a thoughtful look on her face as she watched Derek's form get smaller in the distance.

"You didn't just see that, huh? Still a Newbie sometimes." She turned, wrapping her arms around his middle.

"What does that mean?" He put his arms around her, hugging her to his side.

"He just let me go," she said wistfully.

Luke had her tucked under his chin, but his brow furrowed in confusion before an understanding came over him. He pulled her closer, kissing her head while she pressed her cheek to his chest. A small smile spread across his face as he watched her take a deep breath. She was inhaling his scent. He had a responsibility now that was bigger than any other he'd ever known, and he was more ready for it than he ever thought he'd be.

"Hey, I have one thing that's still bothering me." She turned her chin, laying it on his chest as she looked up to his face.

"What's that?"

"What does 'cash for cake' mean?"

Luke laughed, leading her to the car and settling her in before getting in himself and pulling away. "It means that we got paid for doing something so easy, so good, something you would do for free. Like eat cake. Easy as cake."

Penelope laughed loudly. "Wow, so stripping was just that simple, huh?"

"Not really, but, if you're a young single guy, it's a pretty decent time when all you're doing is flirting for money."

"Well, I suppose I understand that. So are you going to miss getting cash for cake?" she asked him as they pulled up to a red light.

"I think you're all the dessert I need." He winked at her, the charm of Jay coming through full force.

She leaned over to catch his lips, pulling back when she had to catch her breath. "Oh, I think I'm going to like this."

* * *

Thank you to BookDragon2013 for reaching out to tell me how excited you were that someone made the Magic Mike connection. And look at us now! hahaha


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